


Count On Me

by TheOriginalHorcrux



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-10
Updated: 2013-04-03
Packaged: 2017-11-16 00:50:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/533657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOriginalHorcrux/pseuds/TheOriginalHorcrux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This!" Dean shouted, standing up, snatching the paper from Seamus' hands and waving it in his face "This is not free reign Seamus! This is torture, this is the Ministry taking control of our lives, all to keep the pure blood race going!" - Dean has loved Parvati since forever, even after they broke up. Can the fact that he's still nursing a soft spot for her save her life? And will Parvati learn to count on him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Law

**Author's Note:**

> TRIGGER WARNING!  
> This story contains mature themes, such as sexual abuse, rape, abuse, mentions of suicide, suicide attempts and self harm. Please do not read if you are at any sort of risk of hurting yourself because of these words.

**Dean**

"Oi, Seamus, come look at this!" Dean yelled from the living room of his and Seamus' apartment.

"I'm just about to get in the shower!" Seamus yelled back, his voice muffled from behind the bathroom door. Dean couldn't care less. He stood a few feet away from the couch, that day's copy of the _Daily Prophet_ clutched in his hand staring in shock at the various headlines that littered the front page, the one in the very centre being the one that he was most focused on.

_PURE BLOOD'S FORCED INTO MARRIAGE!_

"Seamus!" Dean called warningly and he heard Seamus shut off the water in the bathroom.

"Alright, Alright you son of a banshee, I'm coming!" Seamus yelled back. Dean heard the bathroom door slam and Seamus' feet on the floorboards in the hallway. "What do you want Dean? I'm in a towel and this is getting really awkward."

Wordlessly, Dean tossed him the paper and Seamus caught it expertly, unfolding it.

"This better be _really_ go-" he broke off as he saw the headline. "No" he breathed. "Parvati and –"

"Theodore Nott, yes" Dean interrupted. "What were they thinking?"

"This is _not_ good, what will Parvati's parents say?" Seamus said, sitting down on the couch beside Dean who had his head in his hands. "You _know_ how big they are on traditional Indian Marriage and after the fiasco with Padma and Terry."

"I can't believe all you're worried about is her parents!" Dean said angrily, "She is married to _Theodore Nott_! That slimy little son of a death eater that was friends with Malfoy at Hogwarts!"

"Dean, she's not your girl anymore, she has free reign." Seamus said softly, knowing how touchy his friend was when it came to his ex-girlfriend.

"This!" Dean shouted, standing up, snatching the paper from Seamus' hands and waving it in his face "This is not free reign Seamus! This is torture, this is the Ministry taking control of our lives, all to keep the pure blood race going! Not only is it racist, it's stupid and wrong!"

"Dean, calm down mate." Seamus said, attempting to console him. "You know Parvati, she's cool."

"Not with a marriage to _him_ she's not!" Dean said, his voice filled with malice. "Read it." And he thrust the paper back at Seamus, who opened to page four where the article on Theodore and Parvati's marriage took up a section of the page. Dean read over Seamus' shoulder, shaking with anger at every word he read.

_Lion and Snake tie the Nott_

Even the title was stupid.

_The law for the reasonable decree of wizarding marriage clearly states that if the pure blood race is at risk of becoming extinct (that is, dying out) marriages between a pureblood witch and a pureblood wizard may be forced. The couple will be expected to consummate the marriage within a month._

_Yesterday, your_ Daily Prophet _reporter witnessed the very first of these marriages, a marriage between twenty-one year old Theodore Nott and Parvati Patil, also twenty-one._

_The wedding went against everything both families stood for. The Nott's having always married those of Slytherin Descent and the Patil's always having married those of Indian descent. But one would be wrong to say that the wedding wasn't a huge success._

" _I never really thought I would marry a Gryffindor" says Theodore Nott at the reception of his wedding to Parvati Patil yesterday afternoon. "But for the sake of the pure blood race I'm happy to consent to it."_

Seamus tossed the paper aside angrily. "Not only do they have to _marry_ each other, they have to consummate the marriage within _a month!_ That is pretty much borderline rape!" Dean shook his head, too disgusted to talk. "At least Nott looks relatively happy, look at the smile on his face." Seamus continued, pointing to the moving picture of Theodore and Parvati walking out of the wedding.

"Are you kidding me?" Dean asked "That's not a happy smile, that's an _oh great a new sex toy_ smile"

"I thought it looked slightly funny, the smile that is." Seamus said, pulling himself up from the couch and walking out of the living room. "If you don't mind, I'm gonna go and have my shower now."

Dean waved him off, still immensely pissed off at the article that sat in front of him. His Parvati had been married off to a Slytherin, the same Slytherin that had hexed us on countless occasions, the same Slytherin who had helped the death eaters at the battle those four long years ago and had only got off because he was underage at the time. He screwed up the paper angrily and tossed it into the fire where he watched it burn.

* * *

**Parvati**

Parvati tried not to touch him as they both got out of the car that had transported them to their new home. He was vile. She thanked the driver softly as Theodore waved his wand and all of their things flew out of the back of the truck and into the house, having to rearrange themselves into single file when they reached the front door, there was a few bangs and crashes from inside before there was silence.

Theodore turned and paid both drivers a generous amount of galleons.

"Good day Mr and Mrs Nott." They said, before retreating to their vehicles and driving off. Parvati shuddered. _Mrs Nott_ she hated that name with a passion, she wasn't supposed to be _Mrs Nott_ she hadn't even intended to be married until she was at _least_ twenty-five, but then the ministry had introduced this horrid rule. That two pure bloods would be forced into marriage and to top it all off, they had to consummate it within a month. Parvati was still a virgin, and losing her virginity to a man she had not only never spoken to, but a man that she hated almost made her throw up.

"Come along Parvati dear." Theodore called from the front doorstep, "our house is waiting to be lived in!"

Parvati forced her legs to move. She walked stiffly across the neatly cut lawn towards the door, dreading what was to happen when she went inside. Theodore seemed a little _too_ happy about this marriage for her liking. She had no idea why, it went against everything he stood for, but there he was, no media around at all and he was perfectly cheerful.

The house was nice enough. It was quite cosy, with a little kitchen at the end of the hallway which had several rooms leading off it. She saw Theodore disappear into the master bedroom and forced herself to follow him, fear growing in her chest at every step she took. She had no idea what this man was like, what he liked, what he disliked, if he was nice or mean, though she was leaning towards the latter seeing as he was placed in Slytherin. She put her bag down beside the door as Theodore unpacked his boxes with a wave of his wand, whistling a horrible tune all the while.

Parvati turned and walked out of the room, wanting to escape into the bathroom. But no sooner had she taken two steps, she found herself pinned up against the wall. She tried to scream but couldn't, a hand was clamped over her mouth. She turned her head slowly, looking where no-one ever wants to look, the corner of their eye. She saw Theodore behind her, breathing heavily, that manic smile still plastered on his face.

"Now, you will listen to me very carefully." He whispered in her face, showering her with spit and the smell of tobacco. "Bedroom, now, I want you naked on the bed within five minutes."

Parvati shook her head as best she could before her head was slammed back into the wall by Theodore's fist. "You will do as I tell you!" he roared "UNDERSTAND!"

Parvati stood her ground, her nose stinging where he had hit her. She felt his hand come across her face in a hard slap. "I said, do you understand?"

"No! I most certainly do not understand!" Parvati said, trying to bring some sort of authority into her voice as Theodore pushed her up against the wall, bruising her shoulder blades in the process. "Why should I consent to sex with you when I don't even know the slightest thing about you."

Another punch, this time to the gut. Parvati doubled over in pain as Theodore pushed her to the ground. "You worthless piece of shit, _I_ am the authority in this marriage, not you and I may do to you whatever I please."

"I have rights you know!" Parvati gasped "This is abuse."

"Not in my family it's not, this is discipline, now you will do as I say or I will lock you in the cellar." Theodore said, bending down to whisper in her ear.

"I'd rather go in the cellar." Parvati spat. Theodore roared angrily, seizing her around the waist and swinging her over his shoulder. Parvati screamed as loud as she could, fighting tooth and nail to get away from him, to get out of the house and back to her parents where she was safe. Theodore threw her down on the double bed in the bedroom and locked the door behind him. She knew there was no escape, she could feel bruises rising all over her body but there was no way she was going to consent to having _sex_ with this man, she would rather die. She hurried over to the window as Theodore took off his shirt. She desperately tried to open it but it was no good, it had been sealed shut and her wand was in her bag. She turned away, horrified as Theodore slipped off his trousers and started coming towards her. Parvati closed her eyes, knowing that the only escape was her mind. She thought of Padma and her little nephew Isaac, she thought of dancing with Harry at the Yule Ball, She thought of Voldemort's defeat, but most of all, she thought of Dean Thomas, her first boyfriend and how much she wished she'd stayed in contact with him.


	2. If We Ever Meet Again

_December 13_ _th_ _2001_

**Dean**

"Oi, Seamus!" Dean yelled, tossing a pillow at the sleeping boy on the couch. "We're late!"

Seamus made a muffled sound into his pillow and promptly pulled the blankets back over his head. Dean rolled his eyes as he swung his legs over the edge of his couch and headed over to the window and drew the curtains.

The light seeped into every corner of the room, making Dean shield his eyes and Seamus mumble something which included some very colourful swear words.

Stepping over discarded clothes on the floor from when the two of them couldn't be bothered to tidy up, he walked over to the kitchen and began preparing breakfast. "Get up, Seamus. You'll be late for work for the millionth time." Dean said, turning back around to face the tiny living room where the two of them slept and flicking is wand at Seamus' doona which rose off him immediately and folded itself in the corner.

"Fuck off." Seamus said, turning over and burying his head back in his pillow. Dean shook his head and pulled two dirty plates out of the sink and vanishing the old food in them with his wand. Neither of the two boys could be bothered to wash up the dishes every night after dinner as both of them were incredibly lazy and after work, both of them were completely exhausted and had a lot of paper work to do. Things like doing the dishes and cleaning up the apartment just didn't happen.

Dean looked around the tiny one roomed apartment. It had been all that he and Seamus could afford when they'd decided to room together after they'd finished Hogwarts and got jobs at the ministry. Dean often wondered why they didn't buy a bigger one now that they both had more money, but they were happy here nonetheless.

They lived in a small neighbourhood in Chiswick, London. To their knowledge they were one of only three magical households which made levitating the groceries up the stairs a little harder than it should've been. In fact, they had resigned themselves to carrying them up the many stairs the muggle way.

The toast popped out of the toaster and Dean flicked his wand at it so that it soared across the kitchen, landed on the two plates and immediately started to butter themselves.

There was a tapping on the window and Dean looked up to see one of the ministry owls that delivered the Daily Prophet that morning. He felt a rush of hot June air hit his face as he pushed it open and the owl flew inside, swooping across the room to drop the paper on Seamus' head and fluttered back into the kitchen and sticking it's leg out for Dean to put a knut in it.

"Hang on," Dean said, hurrying to the door to get his money pouch out of his bag. The owl clicked its beak impatiently, no doubt that it had other _Daily Prophets_ to deliver. "I'm coming, I'm coming." Dean said, wincing as the paper hit him in the back of the head as he passed Seamus' couch as he tried to extract a knut from all of his sickles.

"There you go." Dean said to the owl, placing the knut into its pouch. Finally satisfied, the owl flew back out of the window without so much as a hoot of thanks.

"Breakfast," Dean said, plonking the toast down in front of Seamus who still hadn't moved from his sleeping position, despite the fact that he had no blanket any more.

"Thanks." Seamus muttered as Dean retrieved the _Daily Prophet_ and sat down to read it with his breakfast.

He glanced over the headlines briefly, nothing catching his attention before thumbing through the paper, occasionally reading an article that Rita Skeeter had so clearly messed with. It made him laugh a little as what she had written was so much more eccentric than the event probably was.

Downing his tea, Dean waved his wand at his plate and mug and directed it at the sink where it joined the stack of dirty dishes that they probably should try to wash up sometime soon.

"Seamus if you don't get up and eat your breakfast within the next minute you will be late." Dean said, picking some clothes up off the floor and heading into the bathroom. Seamus grunted in response.

Seamus would probably sleep all day if Dean wasn't there to wake him up each morning. Dean splashed cold water on his face and slipped into some jeans and a t-shirt. Being an auror, he had no idea whether or not there would be a case that day or not and he had learned quickly that nobody wore their suits to work unless they knew that there was a case. Dean's suit lived in his locker, as did everyone else's suits in the auror department. They would all quickly don them if word came around about a break in at Diagon alley, a fight between a wizard and a muggle, where they might have to wipe some memories, or on the rarest occasion, the dementors at Azkaban going wild and sucking the souls out of everyone in the prison. Being an auror was most certainly not a boring job, but the paperwork was horrendous!

"I hate work." Seamus yawned as Dean walked out of the bathroom, "Why couldn't they give me a decent job at The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures?"

"Seamus," Dean said, looking disbelievingly at his friend, "You applied for a job at the Department of Experimental Charms… what job were they supposed to give you other than the one you applied for?"

"Well, I thought it would be more experimenting with charms, but no we help people who experiment with charms and reverse the effects, not quite the ideal job that I imagined." Seamus grumbled and Dean glanced furtively at the clock.

"I'm late, so I'm going to go now." Dean said, plucking his keys off the table by the door, opening it and stepping out into the corridor, "Don't take too long or I'll get a full on Spanish inquisition at work as to where you are."

"Spanish inquisition?" Seamus asked.

"Muggle history," Dean said, rolling his eyes, "you know it wouldn't hurt you to open a book once in a while."

"Books are boring." Seamus said.

"With that attitude you will get nowhere." Dean called as he shut the door behind him, shaking his head at Seamus' antics. He knew that Seamus would eventually get up and make his way to work in his own sweet time. It didn't really matter for him as, judging by the times that Dean had been down there; the members of that department only got a call once a week and spent most of their time flying paper planes at each other to stave off the boredom.

He quickened his pace down the stairs of the building, waving at old Mrs Cribbins as she walked up the stairs. Mrs Cribbins was one of the other witches in the area, meaning the wink that she gave him as he passed her was one that was slightly reprimanding for being late for auror duty.

Dean wished that when he and Seamus had decided to rent the flat that they had noticed that it didn't have a fireplace, meaning that Dean had to walk down the road to a deserted alleyway which the Ministry had declared the apparition safe point for Chiswick.

Seamus thought it was ridiculous that they were given no legitimate reason why they weren't allowed to disapparated from their own homes, but secretly Dean thought that the ministry was heading in somewhat the right direction.

With apparition safe points, people could only apparate in or out of the place that they were going to or leaving through a single point in the suburb. Granted, it wasn't the most fool proof situation, it was riddled with disadvantages and dangers, not to mention that it was a complete inconvenience for everyone in the neighbourhood who needed to use it, but nobody complained, because after the war if the ministry was taking extra precautions to protect people, nobody was going to argue, especially now that Kingsley Shacklebolt was the Minister of Magic.

Dean reached the alleyway and hurried down it until he reached a piece of corrugated iron, which marked the start of the zone where he could apparate to the ministry (the best part about working for the auror office was the fact that he was granted immediate apparition, which meant that Dean didn't have to suffer through the tedious security protocols that the ministry had set up after the war.

Turning on the spot, Dean focussed on the chair behind his desk in the auror office where he could sit back and relax until someone called him on a case. Well, everyone else could relax, he was given all of the paperwork until the next batch of amateurs came in and Dean could pass over the work to them.

In the years following the war there had been a rush of people wanting to become aurors, so the ministry had decided to take double the amount of participants, but only every three years which lead to nobody wanting to wait another three years to go into auror training, leaving them with no new aurors.

Dean appeared in his office seconds later and sat down at his chair, pulling out the file that he had been organising the previous day.

"Thomas!"

Dean looked up, surprised to see his supervisor and head of the auror office, Nicholas Darzky, walking towards him. He had never spoken to Mr Darzky before, not even when he'd been in the auror training facility.

"Yes, sir?" Dean said, abandoning the file and looking up at his superior.

"No paperwork today Thomas, we've had a muggle break into Diagon Alley with a couple of friends and rob the apothecary. There'll be a few memory charms dished out I daresay. We need you to invent a cover story and hand them over to the muggle police."

"I can do that, sir." Dean said, quickly packing up the file and stowing back into his draw, grateful to be allowed to get away from his desk.

"Good to hear, Thomas. But please get changed beforehand, we can't have aurors on the streets in jeans and a t-shirt. People might not recognise you."

"Yes sir, of course sir." Dean said politely watching Darzky go. He immediately rushed off to his locker and pulled out the suit that had been in there gathering dust since his third week at work when he'd finally caught on that he didn't have to wear one.

"Dean Thomas?"

Dean wheeled around to see two aurors who had been in the training facility with them. He couldn't quite remember their names but both of them had a bad reputation for being tough.

"That's me." Dean said, smiling at them. They just looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

"I'm Franklin Aurelius and this is Yves Mondine, we're going to be accompanying you on this." The slightly larger one said.

"Great," Dean said, "I'll just go and change into this and I'll be right with you."

"Hurry up." Yves Mondine said.

Turning away, Dean sighed. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

**Parvati**

Parvati surveyed herself in the bathroom mirror.

The purple bruises decorated her body from where Theodore had used her as a punching bag.

Cuts from six months ago were forced open again and again and slowly oozed blood from them.

She touched a bruise on her shoulder and rubbed some cream on it. Cream was all that she had left. Theodore had taken her wand on the first day that she had moved in with him.

She hadn't seen her family in half a year, she hadn't left the house without Theodore by her side and she most certainly didn't have a job anymore.

She sometimes wondered how she had gone from a successful business woman at the Department of Foreign Affairs to being a slave in her own household. _Oh yeah._ She reminded herself bitterly, _stupid marriage laws._

On the rare occasion that she managed to scrounge a paper from the rubbish bin and read it she saw more and more pure bloods being forced into marrying each other. She saw girls her age and younger being forced into cars after their weddings in the pictures. Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini were forced together, Rose Zeller and Dennis Creevy were assigned to each other, Susan Bones and Ernie McMillan, Ron Weasley point blank refused to marry Astoria Greengrass to the point where several supervisors were injured, so their first Borns were promised to each other. Each time she opened the _Daily Prophet_ she saw more and more people being added to the list of forced marriages.

At least some of them were good matches. Susan and Ernie had been dating for years before this law was introduced so their marriage would've just come a little sooner that they had anticipated.

"Oi, Parvati, get me another beer! And make sure it's cold this time, bitch!" she heard Theodore call from the kitchen. She sighed as she pulled her dressing gown towards her and wrapped it around herself. That's all Theodore did, drink, yell at her, beat her and rape her. Parvati didn't know whether or not it was classed as rape anymore if she consented to it.

"Hurry up you bloody whore! I'm not going to live forever." Theodore demanded and she heard his fist come down hard on the table. She hurried out of the bathroom and headed towards the fridge. She knew there were cold beers in there as she had restocked it last night.

"You took your bloody time! You're going to be the death of me you stupid woman." Theodore said as Parvati used a bottle opener to pop the bottle open.

"Aren't you going to apologise?" Theodore asked, Parvati didn't make a noise. Theodore sighed exasperatedly, "Stupid bitch, you need to learn some manners. Now give me my beer."

Filled with hot rage, Parvati made it look like she was having trouble opening the bottle, spat into it and preceded to hand it to Theodore who took a long sip from it.

Brimming with satisfaction, Parvati forced a smile off her face as Theodore chugged down the whole beer. She didn't know what he saw in the muggle beverage; maybe it kept him smashed for longer? Maybe it was just cheaper. Parvati had no clue; she'd learnt not to oppose him or she'd get a beating.

"Cover up your damn bruises woman, we're going into Diagon Alley today for some stupid 'six months on' shit for the fuckin' _Daily Prophet_." Theodore said. Slamming the bottle down on the table he pointed a shaking finger at her, "If you say a single word about our 'activities' I'll lock you in the fuckin' cellar when we get back and you won't be fed for a week."

Parvati nodded slowly, hoping that he could feel the cold hate from her eyes boring into his soul and freezing his black heart.

"Well then, hurry up! We're going in ten minutes and I don't want a single sign of those bruises." He reminded as Parvati walked slowly away back into the bedroom with only one thought in her mind; running away from this horrible life that she now lead.

* * *

Smiling for the cameras wasn't easy. Not when Parvati was in so much pain on the inside. She hated lying to the Daily Prophet and saying that she loved being married to Theodore. She hated his arm around her shoulders as the cameras took their pictures. She hated everything about him, every single hair on his head.

The cameras were never ending and her chance to slip away was becoming slimmer until Rita Skeeter called Theodore away for a private interview. Parvati saw her chance.

Making sure that people weren't looking at her, she quietly slipped behind a bookshelf. It was a perfect escape route to the back door of the shop… if the counter wasn't in the way.

"Hey, Parvati!" she heard a familiar cheery voice say. She wheeled around to see none other than Dean Thomas walking towards her, beaming his head off.

"Dean!" Parvati whispered, "Oh boy am I glad to see you again."

"How are you?" Dean asked, moving to hug her. Parvati winced as he brushed against her bruises. "You alright?" he asked, noticing the way that she cringed away from him.

Parvati shot a furtive glance at Rita Skeeter, making sure that she still had Theodore occupied.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked, his brow creasing. Parvati bit her lip, she had to tell someone, but how would she do that without Theodore knowing, because he always knew.

"I hate him." Parvati said, coming to a conclusion about how to say it.

"I don't say I blame you." Dean said darkly, glaring in Theodore's direction. "What's it like?"

"Horrible," Parvati said, shooting another glance at Theodore to make sure that he wasn't looking at her, "I wish I could just run away."

"Oi, Thomas! You're supposed to be on duty, not chatting up girls!" Parvati heard someone yell from outside. Dean looked torn between his colleagues and staying and talking to Parvati.

Dean pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and scribbled something on it.

"Here," he said, handing it to her, "This is my address, floo me some time and we can talk properly. I really should be helping out with the break in at the apothecary but I saw you come in here and couldn't resist coming to talk to you."

Parvati slipped the paper up her sleeve, "Thank you." Parvati said. "It's been ages since I've had human interaction."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing." Parvati said, shaking her head. She'd already said too much.

"Thomas, come on, are you an auror or a prostitute, we're on duty here!"

"I'm coming Aurelius!" Dean said, turning away from Parvati and walking out of the store.

"I'll talk to you soon, okay." Dean said, just as he reached the top step, "Just call me if you need to have someone to talk to." And with a nod, he was gone

"Thank you Dean," She muttered. Just like that she started to feel like there might be some sort of light in the dark path that she was being forced down.


	3. Run

“Hey, Dean, I need to talk to you,” Seamus said as Dean cleaned up the kitchen after he had arrived home that night.

“Did you get fired? Because if you did, I will seriously smash this plate over your head,” Dean said

“Why do you always automatically assume that I’m in trouble?” Seamus said exasperatedly.

“Because, more often than not, you are,” Dean said, sitting down on his couch, “What do you want?”

“I’m moving out,” Seamus said simply.

“Okay,” Dean said slowly, “What brought this on?”

“Lavender and I have decided that we want to move in with each other. We’ve been together since seventh year and we figured it might be time to move to the next step in our relationship,” Seamus shrugged.

“Alright then,” Dean said, shrugging back and getting up off the couch and making his way back over to the dirty dishes in the sink, “When are you moving?”

“On the weekend,” Seamus said, looking relieved that Dean hadn’t taken his moving in with Lavender badly, “We’ve been looking for a place for ages and Lav just found one today. The owners haven’t lived in it for ages so we’re moving in as soon as possible.”

Dean didn’t know what to say, so he continued to siphon the food off the plates.

“You’re not mad are you?” Seamus asked.

“No, of course not,” Dean said, shaking his head, “You’re at perfect liberty to do whatever you want, if you want to move in with Lavender then don’t let me stop you.”

“Thanks mate,” Seamus said, clapping Dean on the back, “What’s for dinner?”

“I don’t know, it’s your turn to cook,” Dean said with a slight grin at his friend.

“Then we’re getting takeaway,” Seamus said, “What do you want?”

“I don’t mind,” Dean said, shrugging as Seamus headed towards the door, “Get whatever.”

Seamus nodded as he shut the door behind him. Dean looked around the apartment. It was small and messy, just like it had been this morning when he had left for work, nothing had changed. So why did he feel so different?

It wasn’t because Seamus had told him that he was moving in with Lavender, he wasn’t fazed at all by that. Maybe it was because for once he didn’t have to stress over paperwork that he had been bringing home with him for the last year of working in the auror office, maybe it was because he had seen Parvati again for the first time in so long, he didn’t know.

His thoughts settled on Parvati. It had been a dream come true to see her again, but he couldn’t help but worry about her; It was the middle of June and the only people that were seen in jeans and long sleeved shirts in summer were those who were going to work, and Parvati most definitely hadn’t been at work.

No matter how much he tried to convince himself that he was over Parvati, he still couldn’t help but feel something for her, a little lurch in his stomach every time he read her name in the paper or thought about the year that he had dated her. Yes, it was safe to say that he was definitely still nursing a soft spot for her.

When he had spoken to her in Diagon Alley she had looked absolutely miserable and hurt. He could hardly blame her. She was married to Theodore Nott for god’s sake, who wouldn’t be miserable? But the way that she had flinched away from him when he had tried to hug her told Dean that there was something going on that she was hiding, he hoped that she would floo him soon so that they could talk properly…

~0~

Parvati stared down at the little piece of paper that Dean had hastily scribbled down his address on and looked sadly at the fire that she had just lit with her bare hands moments before. She had no idea where Theodore kept the floo powder, only that if she asked for it, he would be sure to say no and hide it somewhere that she would never find, and when Theodore said that she would never find it, she would never find it. Six months later and she was still looking for her wand.

Parvati stuffed the piece of paper hastily up her sleeve as Theodore walked into the living room.

“Make me steak for dinner,” Theodore ordered.

“What’s the magic word,” Parvati said bitterly, still, after all this time refusing to give in to his bullying and torments.

Within seconds, she found herself being blasted backwards across the room, “Don’t you get fresh with me you little bitch,” Theodore spat, “Now make me steak.”

Parvati bit down hard on her lip as she picked herself up from the ground. Her head was throbbing from where she had hit the wall and she was fairly sure that more bruises would’ve arisen by morning. Tears threatened to spill over but she couldn’t let Theodore see her cry, it was as sign of weakness and she was not going to have him think of her as weak.

Theodore sat down in the chair next to the fire and summoned a firewhiskey from the fridge as Parvati pulled on her apron and shakily pulled out the meat that was stocked in the fridge.

The pain in her head was slowly becoming worse and worse with every movement that she made and it took all of her willpower not to wince as she knew that Theodore’s eyes were still on her, watching for any sign of weakness that he might be able to act upon.

She kept her eyes focussed on the meat that was now cooking in front of her despite the fact that she felt sick and her vision was starting to blur, she suspected that she’d suffered a bad concussion at the very least. She turned her back to Theodore on the pretence of chopping up potatoes as tears leaked out of her eyes as the pain started to become overwhelming. She didn’t know how much longer she could take this.

A snuffling snore from behind her made her jump a few feet in the air as she wheeled around, brandishing the knife that she was holding, only to see Theodore grunt in his sleep again.

She breathed a sigh of relief and crouched down, putting a hand to her head and letting the tears flow as silently as she could. Theodore falling asleep was a rare luxury and Parvati was determined to make the most of it. She moved her hands from her head and surveyed them underneath the light. They glistened with blood.

Making sure that the steak was still cooking on the stove and that Theodore was most definitely asleep, she slipped up the hall to the bathroom, where she kept a small first aid kit for treating the bruises and cuts that she received from her brutal marriage to Theodore.

Wincing, she poured water over her head to clean the wound and proceeded to dab it with an alcohol wipe until it stopped stinging. She had trained herself to live with pain. It was her friend now, a friend that constantly hurt her.

She didn’t know what else she could do. She wasn’t a healer and the most she knew about treating injuries was putting a Band-Aid on a scrape.

Thinking that she’d better not risk her luck, she darted back into the kitchen relieved to see that Theodore was still snoring away in his chair. She quickly set about cooking an adjacent dinner for herself for later. She never ate with Theodore and he always decided what she would eat.

She quickly mashed up one of the cooked potatoes, mixed with mayonnaise and shovelled into her mouth quickly; she placed the other two in the cupboard underneath the sink with the vegetables that she had gathered for her dinner.

She could hear Theodore’s breathing become less deep and knew that he was about to wake up. Her head throbbing painfully, she quickly flipped the steak onto a plate and put a few peas around the side as Theodore slowly came to….

~0~

“See you mate,” Dean said to Seamus as he stood at the door to their – now Dean’s – apartment, “You’re welcome back here any time.”

“Thanks,” Seamus smiled, shaking Dean’s hand.

“Good luck with Lavender,” Dean said as Seamus picked up his suitcase, “and try not to get her pregnant, you’re only twenty-one.”

Seamus punched Dean rather forcefully on his shoulder, “Don’t make me hurt you,” he said seriously, “that’s not something that we should joke about at all.”

“Why?” Dean asked, “Are you planning on it?”

“No!” Seamus said, “God you’re impossible.”

The horn sounded from Lavender’s car down at the road.

“That’s me,” Seamus said starting to head off towards the stairs.

“Have fun,” Dean said, raising one hand in farewell as Seamus disappeared down the stairs. Just like that, he was gone.

Dean headed back inside his apartment. It was cleaner than it had been in three years. It was only now that he was gone did Dean realise that the mess he was so often embarrassed about was all Seamus’ and Seamus owned half the amount of things that Dean did.

Seamus had been gone from the apartment plenty of times before, but it was something about the knowledge that he wasn’t coming back to live that made Dean slightly sad. The two of them had been roommates ever since they were eleven years old and to suddenly not have a roommate made the apartment feel large and empty, despite how small it was.

Dean didn’t know how to feel, he was happy that he finally had his own space, but sad that Seamus was gone.

He walked over to the cupboards and grabbed one a fizzing whisbee out of the jar on the top shelf and popped it into his mouth, savouring the taste.

It was only then that he realised that he didn’t know what to do with himself now that he had nobody to speak to or interact with. He never ate fizzing whsibees when it wasn’t a special occasion.

It was silent, almost too silent and Dean hadn’t been around silence ever. He had an older sister and two younger ones, he had always had some sort of noise penetrating his eardrums.

I flicked his wand at the wizarding wireless which immediately turned itself on and tuned into the nearest wizarding radio station, which happened to beThe Comedy Hour with Lee Jordan.

_This will have to do_ , Dean thought, _for now._

~0~

Parvati was an expert at making her mind drift apart from her body. So much so that she was only just aware that her body was being violated. Tonight, however, she couldn’t manage to separate her mind from her body and she felt everything.

Theodore’s mouth was all over her face, kissing her hungrily as he fondled her breasts. Parvati struggled and struggled, but her attempts were futile – he was much too strong for her.

Her arms were pinned to her sides and her legs were being forced apart by Theodore’s other wondering hand. She knew what was coming next and she knew that it wasn’t going to be pleasant, it never was.

She tried to force her mind to go elsewhere, to think of happy thoughts and good times before this stupid marriage law had been introduced but it didn’t work, it was almost like there was something blocking it from happening.

“Do you reckon you could say something?” Theodore said as he thrust in and out quickly, “Honestly, it’s like I’m rooting a corpse or something.”

Parvati grunted slightly as she moved her leg inwards a little bit, positioning it right under his groin, a plan formulating in her head as she did so. She knew why she couldn’t make her imagination take her away. It was the stupid gash on the back of her head, but the stupid gash had also made her realise something else, instead of lying down and taking it with only minimal struggle, she could try and run away. It might fail, but nothing could be worse than the conditions that she was living in now, could they and besides, with the running away option she had a fifty percent chance at freedom.

She waited until Theodore had hit his climax and pulled out of her. Seconds afterwards she pulled her knee up and into his groin as fast and as hard as she could.

He let out a loud yell and rolled off her, clutching at his balls. Sitting up, Parvati swung her fist into his temple, feeling her knuckles bruising in the process, it payed off, however because after a few seconds, Theodore lapsed into unconsciousness.

Feeling slightly triumphant, Parvati scrambled around the room for her clothes. She pulled them on quickly, not stopping to turn her shirt around the right way – she didn’t know when Theodore might wake up again.

She ran for the door, only stopping to grab Theodore’s wand. _A wand for a wand_ she thought menacingly as she twirled the stick of wood in between her fingers, making sure that the piece of paper that had Dean’s address on it was still in her pocket.

She knew exactly where she was going from here.


	4. Cry

Parvati didn't know where she was. It was pitch black; either all the streetlights were out or she wasn't anywhere near a suburban area. She could barely see her own hand in front of her face and the crunching sounds that pierced the silence of the night when she stepped told her that she was on some kind of gravel pathway.

She stumbled and almost fell face first, but caught herself at the last second. Frustratedly, she pulled out Theodore's wand and lit it. It cast an eerie glow over what she now saw was a narrow, gravel alleyway with brick walls that stretched up over twenty metres over her head. A sense of foreboding quickly washed over her as she pointed the wand ahead of her and saw nothing but looming darkness. Her heart hammered at a hundred miles an hour as she took several tentative steps forward. In some ways, having the light was scarier than having no light, at least then she wouldn't know what was around her and more importantly, what was around her couldn't see her.

She had no idea where she was. She had just run in the direction of the main road when she had left Theodore's place, but it hadn't been long before she had lost her way and ended up here. As she walked along, casting the wand light as high as she could she started to hear the sound of an approaching vehicle. The crunch of gravel however, was absent, which meant that Parvati was close to an asphalt road again. Sure enough, as she rounded the corner, she saw that she had reached what looked like a highway in which what she now recognised as the main road that ran straight through London.

She had made it.

Exhausted from the long journey, she collapsed gratefully against one of the walls of the alleyway to catch her breath, a smile spreading across her face.

"Did you really think you could evade me?"

The gruff voice made Parvati jump out of her skin as she scrambled backwards, trying to use the wall as a support. She would recognise that voice anywhere.

The big, hulking shape of Theodore Nott loomed into view and Parvati just about peed herself although she was pleased to see that his eye was puffy and slightly bruised along with the side of his head.

"You little bitch," he said, picking her up by her hair and swinging her around so that she could not run out onto the road, "How fucking dare you hit me and run away, how fucking dare you take my wand," he said as Parvati's hand tightened around it in her pocket, wincing as the hair pulled against the wound on the back of her head.

"How did you find me," Parvati hissed menacingly, fighting to keep her face void of pain. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

"You really are as stupid as you look, aren't you?" Theodore laughed, "I had a tracker placed on my wand as soon as we moved into that house because I knew that once I'd taken yours, you'd try to go for mine, and I was right," Theodore said, letting go of Parvati's hair and putting his hand out for his wand.

Parvati hesitated for a second, and then shook her head slowly, her grip tightening on the stick of wood in her pocket, all manner of spells that she could use against him going through her head.

She felt his fist connect roughly with her cheekbone, pain ripping through it as the force of it knocked her to the ground.

"Give it back or I swear I will kill you right now," Theodore said, looming over her as Parvati attempted to pick herself up.

She glared at him, "You're going to do it anyway, so why wait?" she hissed. Theodore let out a cry of rage and threw himself at her, his fists flailing in every direction, pummelling every part of flesh that he could reach. She curled up in a ball, protecting her head, one hand still in her pocket as blow after blow rained down on her.

" _Stupefy_ ," she managed, whipping the wand out at the very last second before Theodore was surely about to deliver a crushing blow to her head. He froze and keeled over, almost as if someone had hit him from behind.

Parvati didn't hesitate. She jumped up as quickly as she could – which, given the circumstances, was not very quickly at all – and limped to the end of the alleyway where there was a footpath and a place where she could be seen by people. Tears stung in her eyes and she could feel blood running down her face and into her mouth. Every part of her ached and she just wished that she could collapse, but she had to keep going; she had to find Dean.

Tossing the wand aside – she couldn't use it anymore if Theodore could track her with it – she consulted the piece of paper that Dean had given her. Looking up, she could see the London Eye and the Thames river and knew that his apartment was somewhere to the west of that. Pinching her nose to stem the flow of blood, she flung out her wand arm, in hopes that the Knight bus might appear to pick her up, regardless of the fact that she didn't have a wand in her possession anymore.

Sure enough, the bright purple, triple decker bus appeared out of thin air next to her.

"Welcome to the Knight bus, emergency transport for a stranded witch or wizard, my name is Oliver Pringle and I will be your conductor for this evening," the young wizard at the door said, he didn't look much older than Parvati herself.

She pushed past him, not wanting her current state to be seen in much detail.

"Where you headed girlie?" Oliver Pringle said, following her up to the front of the bus where she lay down on a bed, face first. She handed him the slip of paper and Oliver called it out to the driver and proceeded to try to strike up conversation with Parvati. She didn't respond, silently hoping that she wouldn't leave blood on the sheets when she got up.

With a bang, the Knight bus jumped from the main road to a quiet street in which most of the lights were out. Parvati felt the beds in the bus slide a few feet forward as the driver stamped on the brakes.

"'Ere you are then girlie, that'll be six sickles," Oliver said. It was then that Parvati realised that she didn't have any money. She looked slowly up at Oliver from the bed as she raised herself off it.

"Holy shit," Oliver said, looking her up and down, taking in the bloody nose and the puffy eye, "What 'appened to you then?"

"Nothing," Parvati said quickly, looking back down again, her black hair sweeping back into her face, hiding the injuries.

"You call tha' nothing," Oliver exclaimed, "'alf your bleedin' face is all puffed up, innit?!"

"I'm fine," Parvati said softly, even though she felt the complete opposite.

"Look, consider this one on me, you go inside there and make sure that you look after yourself alright?" Oliver said in a low voice.

Parvati glanced back up at him with thankful eyes before quickly turning her eyes to the ground again.

"Go on," Oliver said, "Get outta 'ere."

Parvati managed to pull herself up off the bed and used the railing for assistance to get over to the door and out onto the pavement. As the Knight bus drove off she could see Oliver looking at her with concern through the window.

Parvati consulted the piece of paper again for the unit number. 4/32. She scanned the street looking for the unit block with a large number 32 on it. It was hard to see as most of the street had gone to bed. Parvati had no idea what time it was, but she guessed that it was either very late, or very early.

Finally locating the large, red block of apartments, she stumbled towards the door, grateful that it was one that was always open regardless of what time. Dean lived at number six, which was on the third floor, judging by the fact that there were two homes to each floor.

She began the excruciating experience of getting up the stairs. She tried to hold her tears back and mask the pain like she had practised for months now, before realising that she didn't have to anymore.

She let down her barriers and let the tears flow and the pain show as she hauled herself up the stairs, her chest hurting with each breath and every part of her that had come into contact with Theodore's fist throbbing painfully. She let out a loud sob and her body began to shake with them. She couldn't give up now, she had come so far and to let herself be defeated by some silly stairs would go against everything that she stood for; fighting.

Eventually, after much crying, thoughts of giving up, pain and determination, Parvati reached the third floor landing. Hauling herself up by the railing she limped over to the door with a brass number six on it, hoping that Dean was still awake.

Raising her fist exhaustedly, she knocked twice.

There was a rustling from inside and footsteps coming towards the door. Parvati let out a long breath of relief as the door was unlocked and opened in front of her.

"Parvati!" Dean said in shock as she gave him a weary smile and collapsed straight over the threshold of his house.

* * *

_Shit_ , Dean thought as Parvati's knees buckled from beneath her and she collapsed forwards. He just managed to catch her before she hit the ground. _Oh my god, what the fuck is happening?_ He managed to get his arms under Parvati's and half carry, half drag her towards the couch that had once been Seamus's

He placed her down as gently as he could and pulled the blankets off of his couch and threw them over the top of her as he took in the sight before him.

Her normally beautiful, flawless face was bruised, swollen and bloody and her breathing was ragged and shallow. Dean immediately started to panic, he had no idea what to do.

He glanced at the clock on the mantle which showed that it was two in the morning, much too early to call Lavender, who was a healer, and ask for advice on what to do, much too early to floo to St Mungo's and get professional help – the minor injuries department closed at eleven, and given the extent of some injuries in the magical world, Parvati's were minor injuries.

He could take her to the local muggle hospital, but he had no means of transporting her and no muggle money. He would just have to take care of her himself until morning.

Hurrying into the kitchen, he wet a clean towel, wrung it out and started to dab at the cuts on Parvati's face. He knew one spell from his Auror training that would help them to heal, but they had to be clean first.

He just couldn't help but wonder who – or what, had done this to her. Surely it wouldn't have been Theodore. Dean knew Theodore's antics and if it was him doing this to her, she would never be able to tell a soul.

He turned away to dip the tea towel into the bowl of water beside him when Parvati's eyes fluttered open.

Her first reaction was to flinch and cower away from him as he started to sponge at her head again.

"D-Dean," she muttered tiredly.

"Hey," Dean said with a smile, moving to brush her hair off her forehead. She sat up quickly and scarpered away from him, "What's wrong?" he asked with concern.

"I-I just need a place to stay," she said timidly.

"Well you're always welcome here," Dean said, "Seamus moved out yesterday so I've got room and all but Parvati… what happened?"

Parvati shook her head, a lump rising in her throat.

"Parvati," Dean said slowly, moving closer to her and she flinched backwards again, almost as if it was out of instinct, "Don't try and tell me that you fell into a bush or something because your hair is matted in blood and you've got scars all over your face underneath all of those cuts and bruises."

Parvati shook her head again.

"Look, you don't have to tell me what happened, because I've got a pretty good inclination of what actually did happen, just nod or shake your head because I swear if that bastard has laid a hand on you I will go and smash his face in myself," Dean said menacingly.

"Don't get yourself involved," Parvati said softly, "You'll only get hurt."

"Oh, and that's worse than you getting hurt?" Dean said hotly, "Parvati I would rather be hit a hundred times with the killing curse than stand by and watch someone get abused. You're not going back there, you're staying with me until we can contact your mother or Padma," Dean said firmly.

Parvati didn't say anything, but the look in her eyes was one of thankfulness and relief. Dean sat down next to her and she flinched a little, he shifted away from her slightly. She needed space and time.

"You're allowed to cry, Parvati, hell I would be crying if I'd been through what you've been through," Dean said softly.

Parvati sniffed softly but didn't say anything. They sat in silence for a few minutes longer before Dean spoke up.

"You should get yourself cleaned up," he said, getting up and walking over to the cupboard and pulling out a pair of pyjamas and a towel, "The bathroom's in there and there's some ointment that you can put on your bruises and I've only got size twenty-six pyjamas, so they might be a little bit baggy on you," he walked into the bathroom and put both on the toilet seat, "If you want any help don't hesitate to ask," he finished as Parvati pushed herself off the couch with difficulty. Dean moved to help her but she waved him off, flinching away from him on instinct again.

"I'll be fine," Parvati said, "You just go to bed, I'll sort myself out."

And that was Parvati's ultimate downfall, she always appeared stronger on the outside to everyone. To others it was like she had this impermeable shell that kept out all the hurt and pain, but really, the shell kept it in and as soon as she closed the door to the bathroom and was sure that she was alone, she collapsed onto the cold tiles sobbing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Okay, so I figured out why I wasn't getting into this and it was because I hadn't planned ahead so I did and now I'm really excited to write it… like you have no idea how excited I am. *jumps up and down*
> 
> Well I have officially been dubbed the queen of procrastination… I opened the word document to write this at 3pm and it is now 11pm… this is only 2.5k words long…. It took me eight hours to write 2.5k? that normally takes me one and a half… yes, I am the Procrastination Queen (seriously, I trekked through Wales on google maps to find the entrance to the Torchwood hub and succeeded. Does that give you any idea of how much I procrastinate?)
> 
> Anyway, I'd love to hear what you thought, so if you have time, leave a little comment in the review box below and if you actually liked this then add it to your alerts to get emails when I update :) 
> 
> Until Next Time
> 
> ~The Original Horcrux~


	5. Scream

Slipping on the pyjamas that Dean had left for her on the lid of the toilet, Parvati looked at herself in the mirror.

Her face was sunken and bruised, her cheekbones jutted out and there were splits in the skin where Theodore's fists had collided with her face and the wound on the back of her head that had been ripped open hours beforehand after Theodore had pulled her up by the head throbbed worse than ever. Still, at least she was safe, warm and clean. Although she didn't feel safe or clean, she felt more out in the open than ever now that she had come here. She had a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that Theodore would find her wherever she was and drag her back to live with him.

Despite the fact that she had spent hours underneath the shower with the faucet on full blast while she had lathered her body with soap, ignoring the sting that occurred when she washed over her cuts or the dull ache that happened when she pressed lightly on her bruises. She had cleaned out her injuries and applied some essence of dittany that Dean had in his top draw before putting some ointment on them. She still felt dirty. She felt violated and sore from all of the violence and abuse that she had suffered. No amount of water, soap or ointment could shake that from her.

She wished that she had fought when the Ministry officials had dragged her away from her house and forced her into a wedding gown with frills and walked closely behind her with their wands sticking into her back as she walked up the aisle. She would never forget the reptilian smile that was on Theodore's face that day. It was as if a boa constrictor was looking at a particularly large and juicy meal. He had squeezed her so tightly, just like a boa constrictor would, on that first night until she realised that she couldn't fight him, she could only make him annoyed. He had swallowed her feet when he had enslaved her, just like he would a house elf. He had then progressed to swallow her knees when he had decided that he could do whatever he liked with her, which included the beating and the raping whenever he felt like it, which was increasingly often. She felt as if he had just reached her middle after the incident in Diagon Alley where she had obeyed him and stayed silent about the fact that she was miserable in the relationship that she had with him when she had finally managed to break free from the coils that he had wrapped around her.

Parvati glanced at the clock on the wall opposite the shower; she had been in here for nearly an hour and a half now and despite the fact that she had come to Dean for protection and security, she was glad that he hadn't tried to pry any further into the situation than he had. She liked that he was leaving her alone with her thoughts because if he hadn't she would've felt more trapped and stressed out over the fact that he wanted to know, and she didn't want to go near any of that.

Taking one last look at herself in the mirror, she turned towards the door and opened it slowly.

Dean was sitting on the other couch, his head lolling backwards as he snored lightly. Parvati didn't blame him, it was four in the morning and he had probably wanted to go to sleep a lot earlier than this.

She walked across the room back to the spare couch and lay down on it, wincing as she bumped against a few bruises. She placed her head on the soft pillow and hoped that a somewhat dreamless sleep would find her.

* * *

Dean woke to the sound of whimpering.

His first thought was that it was next-door's dog whining for food but then he realised that the sound was not coming from outside his front door, but from the spare couch.

_Shit_ , Dean thought, remembering that he had company. He leapt up without allowing himself any time to wake up which made his vision cloud over and he tripped over the coffee table and stumbled to Parvati's side. She was jerking sharply at random intervals, her face gleamed with sweat and all the while she made a horrible, frightened whimpering sound.

"Parvati," he said, shaking her shoulder gently as she flinched away from something in her dreams, "Parvati," he repeated, shaking her shoulder a little more roughly than before.

Parvati's eyes flew open. They were wide as saucers and they looked terrified.

Dean's face relaxed into a smile as she lay on her back staring up at the ceiling, breathing heavily.

"Hey, you're fine, you're okay," Dean said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. Her head snapped sideways to look at him before pulling away abruptly, still looking like a scared child. "What were you dreaming about?"

Parvati shook her head fervently.

"Alright," Dean said, "you don't have to tell me, but at least let me make you some tea or something."

Parvati neither accepted or denied his offer so he got up, switched on the light and flicked his wand at the kettle which flew over to the sink and filled itself up.

Thoughts churned over and over in his mind about what could've possibly happened to Parvati. He knew that she had suffered some form of abuse when she was with Theodore but he had no idea how long it had gone on for, what he had done and how he had done it.

He glanced at the clock on the mantle; it was five in the morning. No wonder he felt wrecked; he'd only had a few hours of sleep.

The kettle finished boiling itself and poured the boiling hot water into the two mugs that Dean had got out moments before. He put in the teabags and waved his wand at the mugs which levitated off the table and moved slowly over to the coffee table where they sat themselves down.

"Here," Dean said, picking one up and handing it to her, "Just how you like it, black and no sugar."

Parvati accepted it with a look of thanks.

He sat down next to her, cradling his own cup of tea in his hands.

"I'd ask how you've been in the last few months but I think it's safe to assume that your life has been pretty shit," he said in a failed attempt to start a conversation.

Parvati didn't confirm or deny.

"Look, Parvati, I know you don't want to talk about it, but sometimes it can help," Dean said quietly. Parvati bit her lip and he knew that she was thinking about what had happened more than ever now. Dean sighed as she stayed silent.

"Okay," Dean said slowly, "Take your time."

"Where's Lavender?" Parvati asked suddenly and Dean could tell that she had been holding back tears.

Dean smiled, "She and Seamus moved in together a few days ago, they're really happy."

Before he knew what was happening, Parvati has burst into tears.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Dean said worriedly as she set her mug down on the table so that she could bury her face in her hands. Dean placed his mug down and attempted to comfort her, "Do you miss Lavender? I can get her to come here today if you want," Dean placed a hand on her shoulder and once again, she flinched away.

"Please, Dean, don't touch me," she sobbed, "I don't want you to touch me."

Dean withdrew his hand like he had been burned, immediately feeling horrible as Parvati sobbed into her hands.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know," He stammered. Parvati drew in a heaving breath.

"It's funny how you don't realise how absolutely miserable your life is until you hear about people who are happy," she said glumly, trying to hold in her tears. Dean resisted the urge to take her hand in his, knowing that she would just pull away again.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Dean asked softly, "You don't have to… but when you're ready, I'd like to know."

"I-I'm not ready," Parvati said, hiccoughing slightly, "But I'll tell you… It's not right of me to turn up here at one in the morning and just expect you to take me in like that."

"It's no problem really," Dean said, waving it off.

"I owe you an explanation," she said quietly, "and I'll give it to you."

Dean was not going to protest, he crossed his arms and looked into her eyes intently to show that he was listening.

Parvati bit her lip again, "I hate him," she said menacingly her voice filled with a cold, hot anger that he had never seen in her eyes before now, "He's horrible…" she stopped abruptly as more tears started to well in her eyes, "I'd better start from the beginning."

Dean nodded.

Parvati took a deep, shaky breath, "On the day that we moved into the house as soon as we were alone he threw me down on the bed and did his business," she started to cry again, "I tried to f-fight back but I couldn't. H-he was too st-strong and he had my w-wand. I tried to defy him but he just kept hitting me and p-putting the cruciatus curse on m-me until I sub-submitted to him. H-he hit me al-almost every day and did his business on top of me a-almost every night until I ran away a-and even then h-he found me. I w-was just outside London and hit me again, but I s-stunned him with his wand and got the knight bus here. Oh Dean w-what am I going to do?!"

Dean couldn't help but reach over and hug her, it made his chest hurt too much just to watch her sit there and cry. To his surprise, she didn't resist at all but turned into his chest and sobbed.

Dean held her close as her body racked with sobs. It was the first sign of weakness that she had shown since he'd seen her.

"Is that what you were dreaming about?" Dean asked softly and he felt Parvati nod into his chest. He hugged her tighter, "Don't worry, you're safe here. I won't let anyone hurt you," he reassured her.

Parvati pulled away, looking at him with eyes that held too much pain and suffering for a woman of her age to have suffered, "I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to that place."

"You're not going to," Dean said firmly, "I'm not letting you, you're staying here and we'll tell the wizenagamot and we'll have him prosecuted forever."

"You're so optimistic," Parvati sniffed, "They'll never believe us, we don't have any solid evidence."

"Oh, so you being beaten to a pulp isn't evidence enough, plus you can give them your memories," Dean suggested.

Parvati shook her head quickly again.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want them to see that," she said quickly. Dean didn't press the matter as he knew that giving over her memories would take much more courage on her part than it did to tell him what had happened to her. He didn't know what to say next, and neither did Parvati as she didn't say anything. So they just sat there curled up on the couch with tea as the sun slowly rose above the horizon.

_BANG!_

Dean jumped slightly as a single bang echoed off his front door.

_BANG!_

Dean turned his head suspiciously towards it.

_BANG!_

He saw the door cave slightly between the hinges and knew whatever was out there was trying to get in. He looked back at Parvati who looked petrified. He got up slowly, picking up his wand from the coffee table and pointing it at the door.

With a final _bang,_ the door flew off its hinges and across the room where it smashed into the opposite wall.

Dean could've peed himself when he registered who was standing there, the very person who he had planned to prosecute for unspeakable crimes; Theodore Nott. He heard Parvati's terrified scream and the shattering of a mug as she dropped her tea on the ground.

"Oh you little fucker," Theodore raged, storming over the threshold and walking towards Parvati, "You fucking adulterer! You just wait and see what I've got in store for you."

" _Stupefy,"_ Dean said, pointing his wand at Theodore who deflected the spell easily, but turned his attention away from Parvati and onto Dean.

"You!" He raged, "You fucking man-whore, trying to steal my wife away from me. I should kill you right now for trying to break up my marriage."

"It's not a marriage you have," Dean yelled, his voice ten times more courageous than he actually felt, "It's a bloody master-servant relationship! You don't treat people that way, Nott, it's out of line."

"You told him!" Theodore yelled, turning to Parvati, "You stupid bloody bitch, what is wrong with you?"

Parvati whimpered at the sight of him as Dean shot another stunner at him, he deflected it again.

"I won't let you touch her again, Nott," Dean said calmly, "If you do I will personally make sure that I kill you myself."

"Try and stop me," Theodore sneered.

" _Petrificus Totalus_ ," Dean tried but Theodore just kept deflecting the spells that Dean shot at him.

"Did you not make it past first year, Thomas?" Theodore sniggered as he advanced on him.

"How did you find me?" Dean said, trying to take Theodore's mind off the fight at hand.

"I asked around," he said, "Knew that she probably got the Knight Bus so I acted like a caring brother wanting to know where my sister went and the fuckwit driver pointed me right here… step aside Thomas if you know what's good for you."

"You're not taking her," Dean snarled, shooting an impediment jinx at him, "She's staying here with me so that we can get her some proper help," Dean was amazed at how calm his voice was staying despite the fact that he could've shat himself right then and there.

"Well you're going to have a fun time getting that from her… _Crucio_ ," he said and Dean had no time to throw up a protective charm when the curse hit him, Theodore had managed to do what he had failed to do; taking his mind of the fight and distracting him. It was like his body was being penetrated by a thousand knives. He heard Parvati's horrified scream as his vision went black. He was vaguely aware of his head hitting something hard and his consciousness slipping away into a deep chasm of nothingness.


	6. Smooth Criminal

**Warning: this chapter contains considerably darker themes than the rest of the story and is rated 'M'. Read at your own risk.**

* * *

Chapter 6 Smooth Criminal

Parvati watched Theodore's stunning spell hit Dean square in the chest as he fell. She felt an unearthly scream issue from her mouth as she heard the sickening crack of Dean's head hitting the floorboards.

She couldn't move, she couldn't make a sound as she just stared at Dean's motionless body as rough hands grabbed her around the waist. She felt the urge to scream but all that came out was a strangled cry as Theodore turned on the spot, swinging her around with him. Nothing happened.

He cursed wildly and dragged Parvati over to Dean's fireplace. She was still numb and couldn't tear her eyes away from Dean.

"Stupid bastard doesn't even have floo powder!" Theodore growled, banging his fist down on the mantelpiece.

It was the smashing of the glass in the frame of the picture that brought Parvati back to her senses. Theodore grabbed her again, slung her over his shoulder and began walking towards the door. She opened her mouth and found that she could scream again. She let out a long, high pitched scream, hoping that someone would hear and come out to see her being kidnapped. She kicked, clawed and struggled against Theodore's grip but he was too strong. She screamed again, this one louder than before.

"Don't bother, bitch," Theodore muttered menacingly as they walked outside, "I've put silencing charms on everyone's doors."

Parvati stopped screaming abruptly as Theodore jabbed her in the side with something long and hard; his wand.

"If you really wanted to stop me, you would've snapped it and thrown it in the Thames you stupid bloody idiot," he said, "You're hopeless… but I've enjoyed playing your little game."

He muttered a few words and seconds later set off in the opposite direction.

"Let me go, Nott," Parvati said as firmly as she could, still clawing at his back and kicking at his torso, "let me go or I swear I'll kill you."

Theodore laughed, "Ooh now I'm scared. I'm being threatened by a helpless girl who's slung over my shoulder with no weapon, I'm positively shitting myself."

"Don't patronise me," she said angrily as they turned down an alleyway, "I'm going to have you prosecuted."

"Oh, no I don't think that's going to happen," Theodore said, walking carefully down it and stopping between a piece of newspaper and corrugated iron, "You see, when I told you that I had enjoyed playing your little game I implied that it had finished, which it has… and now that I've played your game, it's only fair that you play mine."

He turned on the spot and disapparated. Parvati felt the familiar squeezing sensation of side along apparition. Seconds later, instead of appearing outside of their house, he appeared in a musty dank room; Parvati could barely see her own hands in front of her face. She heard Theodore light his wand beside her which threw the room into an eerie sort of light.

Parvati almost wished that he hadn't lit his wand.

"What is this place?" Parvati said, trying to sound confident but only succeeding in sounding like she needed the loo.

"This is the place where my game takes place isn't it?" Theodore said, throwing her down on the ground and knocking the wind out of her. As she struggled for breath, he flicked his wand at her and manacles appeared around her wrists and bound themselves to a ring on the wall, "And my game lasts for a lot longer than yours did Parvati, a lot longer… possibly even forever."

She could see his smile illuminated in the half light, making him look paedophilic and creepy as he advanced on her, his wand outstretched and a tent forming in the front of his pants.

"Get away from me," she tried but Theodore only laughed and flicked his wand again, vanishing her clothes. She shrieked in mortification and drew her legs up to her chest to try and preserve some of her dignity. Theodore moaned slightly at the sight of her vulnerable body exposed before him and started to unbutton his trousers. Parvati whimpered slightly and tried to shrink back into the wall, which proved hard when her hands were bound above her head.

"And Parvati," he said as he pulled his pants down and his erection sprang free, "my game is much more fun, for me anyway."

He pulled off his shirt and singlet until he was fully naked and standing over her, his wand still in his hand.

"Please," Parvati begged as he gave her a quick dose of the cruciatus curse, "please don't."

"But why not?" he asked mockingly, "It's fun."

"You bastard," Parvati said, fighting to keep tears from falling down her face.

"Thank you," Theodore said, pointing his wand carefully into her face, " _Crucio_."

The pain was worse than before when he had just left it on for a few seconds. She felt like she was being dipped in fire and cut open with knives on her already tender flesh. The pain that she was suffering now was nothing compared to what she had suffered before. She could hear someone laughing over the piercing screams that were sounding in her head as every bad memory that she'd ever had came back to haunt her. That was when she realised, they were her own screams that were issuing inside her head, except that they weren't inside her head. They were real, she was actually screaming and Theodore was actually laughing.

Suddenly, the pain faded away and she relaxed immediately, her body still tingling from where the white hot needles had pricked her.

"That was fun now, wasn't it Parvati?" Theodore said, "but it's about to get more fun."

With that, he put down his wand and started to lower himself on top of her. She felt his cock touch her entrance and thrust inside eagerly. She arched her back and moaned slightly, she couldn't help it. His hands fondled her breasts as he thrust in and out with a steady rhythm, each time groaning with pleasure. Parvati felt tears start to roll down her face as his thrusts became faster and it started to hurt.

"Stop," she gasped and Theodore slapped her hard across the face. Her head snapped sideways and she tasted blood in her mouth. She could tell that Theodore was close to the edge as he grunted and groaned, each time making his thrusts rougher and harder until the rhythm of his pelvis on hers made her body move up and down on the cold stone floor.

She felt a warm sensation inside her and Theodore came with a groan of ecstasy. He pulled out slowly and stood up, vanishing the come off of his now soft cock with his wand and staring down at Parvati who was desperately trying to stop her lip from bleeding.

"Are you done yet?" she said trying to glare at him and stay strong but failing miserably.

"No," Theodore said as he re-dressed himself.

"What more can you do to me you bastard?" she said, her voice breaking on the word bastard, "You won't break me."

"Oh but I can certainly try," Theodore said and drove his foot into her stomach as hard as he possibly could. She doubled over, still naked and curled her knees up to her chest as the wind was knocked out of her again. She felt more blows descending on her; to her face, back, legs arms, everywhere that he could reach he kicked, punched, slapped or kneed. All Parvati could do was curl up in a ball and wish that one of the blows would kill her.

They didn't because she was very much alive when Theodore stopped kicking and punching her. She could feel bruises rising all over her body and pain throbbed through every vein in her body as she heard Theodore's footsteps moving away from her.

She raised her head slightly as a blinding light was released into the dark space and shielded her eyes from it.

"Where are you going?" she croaked as she made out a silhouette of Theodore climbing a ladder.

"Like I said," Theodore said, jumping up out of the hole and shielding some light from her eyes so that all she could see was his face, "my game could probably last forever."

And with that, he slammed the door, leaving the darkness pressing in on Parvati's mind.

* * *

The only thing that Dean was aware of was the fact that the back of his head hurt, a lot.

"What the hell?" he murmured as he opened his eyes blearily and looked around the room. It looked like there had been a radical party there last night and Dean felt like he had just woken up with a massive hangover. But however hard he had hit his head last night, he still remembered why his apartment was in this state and why he was so immediately bogged down with worry.

"Fuck," he whispered to himself, "Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck."

He jumped to his feet, making his head spin and staggered towards the door, scooping his wand up off the ground as he went. The door in question however, was still half way across his house and he had wondered how the hell that the people living at number five didn't notice that he had no door when their children went to school that morning. He put a hand to the back of his head and felt a large lump and a bruise forming there, no blood which wasn't always necessarily a good sign but it would have to do for now.

He glanced at the clock on his mantelpiece. Twelve o'clock. Almost seven hours since he had the fight with Theodore, seven hours that Parvati had been away from him for.

Waving his wand at the door, he levitated it back over to its frame and repaired it before proceeding to cast extra protective enchantments on it. He then sent a patronus into work telling Kingsley that he had found a case of his own to follow up and that he wouldn't be in today.

Grabbing his coat, wand and both muggle and wizard money, he hurried out of the apartment.

The only problem now was where to start. Dean was an auror but he had no experience in tracking people.

He sighed and started to walk towards the apparition alleyway. He supposed the best place to start would be to find out where Theodore Nott lived. Surely if he wasn't in the phone book, he would have to be registered in the Wizarding Household Department Building.

Dean reached the apparition safe point and turned on the spot, focussing on the lobby of the place that he wanted to go.

Seconds later he appeared with a pop in the middle of the room and continued walking as if he had not just had the air squeezed out of him by the process of Apparition.

"Hello," he said to the lady behind the counter who didn't look up from cleaning her nails, "Dean Thomas, Auror office," he flashed his identification at her, "I'm looking for the Nott residence."

"Just a moment," she said in a flat tone. Getting up out of her seat with a groan and making her way over to the huge filing cabinets at the back of the room. Using her wand, she located the N section and then proceeded to take ten minutes longer to find the file labelled Nott.

"What's the code?" she asked.

"Sorry?" Dean said, perplexed.

"The code to access Mr and Mrs Nott's records," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. _Of course_ , Dean thought bitterly, _of course there's a bloody code_.

"I'm from the Auror office, I can override that," Dean tried, knowing that it would fail.

"Sorry sir, but we can't let you access their records without the code, I suggest you come back with it," she said, sitting back down and going back to cleaning her nails.

Dean swore under his breath, how the hell was he going to find her now? He had no address, no direction, no point of reference. He was left with essentially nothing.

The way Dean saw it, there were two options. Option one was to wonder around until he found her by chance, and option two was call in the aurors to help, which, despite being a sensible idea, would be a lot more trouble than it seemed and Dean didn't want to get on Kingsley's bad side.

Despite these thoughts, Dean found himself pushing in front of a young man in the floo powder line and shouting "Auror office, ministry of magic," as he stood in the green flames.

He felt himself be sucked away through the swirling vortex of fireplaces, seriously doubting that he could get anyone to believe him.

* * *

Parvati didn't know how long she had been there, only that it had been more than a few days. She knew because she could hear footsteps above her all day and nothing all night. She was bound by her hands to the wall and completely naked, (Theodore hadn't had the decency to redress her) and she was scared beyond belief.

It was so dark. It pressed in around her, weighing on her consciousness as all of her worst memories loomed in around her.

She was hungry and thirsty. Theodore hadn't been down there since he had left her there about three days ago. Three whole days; they said that you could last two weeks without food but only three days without water. Parvati knew that's what Theodore wanted; her off his hands. Her mouth was dry and parched and she knew that if she didn't get water by the end of the day when Theodore's footsteps stopped thumping overhead, that she would die.

She had accepted her fate. She had accepted it as soon as Theodore had told her that the game that he was playing would go on forever. She would not die of old age with a loving husband and Grandchildren, but she would die here in a dingy cellar without any food and water; starved to death by a man who dared call himself her husband.

She was so weak, so sore, she didn't want to think about what she looked like but she knew that she had dropped a fair amount of weight as her body tried to preserve what it could.

She didn't want to close her eyes, but she hadn't in three days and it was now becoming an effort to blink. Surely it would be so much easier just to close them for good, she was going to die anyway.

It was impossible to lie down, not with her hands tied above her head so she just let her head loll against her arm and her eyes shut, hopefully for the last time.

A blinding light forced its way through her eye lids and Parvati's immediate thought was that death had come a bit sooner than she had anticipated and how different it was to what she thought it would be like. She had pictured a long dark tunnel that she would walk along until she reached the end but maybe this was what dying was like, just blinding whiteness and someone endlessly calling her name…

* * *

She looked like death.

It had taken him three whole days with a full auror team to finally find Theodore Nott's place of residence and demand to see Parvati. When he had denied them, they had forced their way in and searched the house. It had been Dean that had found the trapdoor underneath the living room carpet and knew immediately where the bastard had been keeping her.

"Parvati," he said, slapping her face softly, "Parvati can you hear me?" he lit his wand and forced one of her eyelids open and shone the light into her eye. "Her pupils are dilating," he called, "she's still alive, someone get the healers here quickly, and get the bastard arse out of the house and have him carted to Azkaban."

He heard a scrabble for the ladder as three of the eight Aurors that were accompanying him on this mission went to carry out his orders.

One of Dean's fellow Aurors approached her, shining his wand in her face too.

"Bloody hell," he whispered, "She looks like she's dead already."

The light from his wand threw her waxen and bruised skin into sharper relief, making her seem vulnerable.

"How do you know her?" the auror asked, Dean didn't know his name.

"We went to School together," Dean said, tapping the chains with his wand so that they fell off Parvati's arms and she collapsed limply sideways into his arms, "She and I were pretty good friends."

The young auror nodded as Dean picked Parvati up and started to carry her towards the ladder of the staircase, vowing to himself that he would never let that bastard near her again.


	7. If Everyone Cared

Chapter 7

If Everyone Cared

Dean waited with his hands clasped together outside the doors to the Action and Emergency Room of St Mungo's. As soon as they had arrived at A&E, Parvati had been whisked away from him to be treated and he hadn't seen her since. That had been over two hours ago. At first he had busied himself with contacting her family, which had been difficult in itself because he didn't have the faintest idea where any of them lived and had to get the young auror to send a patronus to Lavender so that she could tell him their address. That had been a mistake. Lavender and Seamus had rushed white faced into the waiting room, demanding answers of him. It took him a good fifteen minutes to calm her down enough to get the address out of her and once he had, she refused to leave the waiting room, despite how many times he told Seamus and Lavender that they should go home and he would call them as soon as he knew what was going on, but they both insisted on staying and Dean was too tired by this point to argue with them.

He had managed to contact Parvati's sister Padma and her husband Terry but hadn't been able to get in touch with either of her parents as they lived overseas. Padma had turned a nasty shade of white and hurried away from the fire, calling for Terry. Dean had assumed that she was coming to join them and had pulled his head out of the fire but he was still waiting for them to arrive and he was starting to worry about that and the fact that he had heard nothing from the Healers about Parvati's situation. No sooner had he started to worry, the doors to the waiting room flew open and Padma rushed in looking petrified, Terry followed suit with a small child in his arms. Dean stood up as Padma reached him, demanding answers before he had even said hello.

"Where is she," Padma said breathlessly, "What happened, is she going to be okay?"

Dean could only shrug and say, "I don't know."

Padma collapsed into one of the few vacant chairs in the room, tears welling in her eyes, eyes that Dean now noticed as being identical to Parvati's. Dean couldn't help but feel sorry for her as he resumed his position of sitting there, blindly hoping for news. He hated being the bringer of bad news. He'd had to do it a few times as an auror and had felt just as bad as the killer would've felt if they weren't raging psychopaths. His mind lingered fleetingly on the thought that maybe the trainee healer that they had sent to deliver the news (because they always sent the trainees, as Dean knew only too well) had chickened out and left them in the dark. He pushed that thought aside quickly, he had to think positively so that Parvati would be okay. He couldn't fathom what the sick bastard had done to her, but she had been alive when he had last seen her and he hoped that it would be enough to pull her through.

"Dean," he heard Padma whisper from his right, "How did you find out about this?"

"I'm an auror," Dean responded softly, "I know these things."

Padma seemed to know that he was lying, "You were there, weren't you?" she said. Dean, even though he knew that she would only pepper him with more questions, nodded.

"Then what happened?" she said through gritted teeth, "If you're an auror and you were there you'd better bloody tell me because my twin sister could be dying right now."

"Oh don't be so dramatic," A healer said, walking out of the doors that lead to A&E and stripping off her gloves. Dean, Lavender and Padma jumped to their feet as she walked towards them, "You're Miss Patil's family, I presume?" she said, gesturing to Seamus, Terry, Lavender and Padma.

"No," Seamus said, "We're friends," he gestured to himself and Lavender, "They're family," he pointed to Terry, Padma and the baby in Terry's arms. The healer nodded at them.

"Alright, well, it's good news, she's going to be okay," The healer said and everyone let out a huge sigh of relief. "but," she said and everyone's attention snapped off being relieved that she was going to live and back to the healer, "We've extracted her memories and-" the healer didn't manage to get anything else out as Padma stood up in a rage.

"You took her memories without her permission?" she hissed, "Without anyone in her family's permission even."

"Miss Patil –" the healer tried but Padma cut her off, becoming more and more enraged by the second.

"That's Mrs Boot to you," she said, "I'm married.

"I'm sorry, but I must ask you –"

"Must ask me to what?" Padma shouted, "Calm down? No, I will not calm down, that is a direct invasion of my sister's privacy and for you to just go in and grab her memories when she's most vulnerable is just sick. It's just bloody sick!" she shrieked, her voice breaking on the last word.

"Padma, stop," Terry said as the baby in his arms started to stir and whimper slightly at the loud noises, "You're upsetting Isaac."

Padma collapsed back into her chair, shaking with sobs as the healer looked baffled as to what to do. Lavender walked over and sat down beside Padma, placing her hand on Padma's arm comfortingly. Dean had never known that they were friends.

"Come and talk to us elsewhere," Dean said firmly, gesturing to Terry and Seamus. She nodded and the three of them walked across the room.

"So, what about the memories?" Dean asked, "Is there something wrong with them?"

"No," the healer said in hushed tones, glancing fearfully over at Padma and Lavender, "But she's not going to be right in the head after all she's suffered. We're setting her up with a psychologist right now. It's going to be a long recovery process."

Dean nodded curtly, feeling quite sick. Terry bit his lip and glanced over at his wife and Seamus' expression remained blank.

"When can we see her?" Dean asked.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Thomas, but we only allow family in after visiting hours, which only classifies as Mr and Mrs Boot."

"But I brought her in!" Dean said, outraged, "She came to me when she escaped his place before but the bastard broke in and took her back. Don't you dare tell me that I can't see her until visiting hours!"

"I'm sorry, Mr Thomas, but it's hospital policy. Unless you're family we cannot allow you to visit patients after visiting hours."

"Bullshit," Dean said angrily and Terry shot him a meaningful look as he put his hands over the baby's ears, "Sorry," he said briefly before rousing back on the Healer, "What if they give me permission?" he asked, knowing that if she was a trainee he would be able to bend her so that he could go and see Parvati.

The healer shook her head and Dean swore under his breath. The healer turned to Terry, "We've moved her up into Intensive Care, if you want to go and see her."

Terry nodded as the Healer turned away and walked back into A&E. Dean had to admit, she had been stronger than most trainees, but he did notice that her shoulders hunched and started as soon as she was through the doors. Dean turned back to face Padma and Terry, feeling slightly guilty.

"We'll let you know how she is," Terry said kindly, seeing how annoyed Dean was at not being able to see her, "You three should go home and get some rest, It's almost eleven. Seamus and Lavender looked at each other and nodded but Dean shook his head, "I'll wait outside ICU if I have to, I'm not going home until I've seen with my own two eyes that she is okay."

Padma and Terry nodded, not at all perturbed by the fact that even though it was a family situation, that Dean wanted to stay. Perhaps it was to do with him being the one to find her. He didn't know.

With that, Padma and Terry walked off to the elevator and disappeared inside it. Dean turned to Lavender and Seamus, "He's right, you two should get some rest. I'll let you know if anything happens."

Lavender, who had looked like she was going to fall asleep at any moment for the past few hours nodded sleepily and Seamus held out a hand for Dean to shake.

"When you've got the time, mate," Seamus said, "There's something that me and Lav want to tell you."

"I've got nothing but time," Dean said, thinking of the ten hour wait he had before visiting hours opened again.

"My mistake," Seamus said, "An appropriate time," and with that, Seamus and Lavender disapparated, leaving Dean alone in a crowded room.

* * *

Parvati was vaguely aware of a beeping sound and hushed voices from above her. The surface that she was lying on was soft and she felt comfortably warm but at the same time, she was nowhere near being comfortable. She could feel every cut and every bruise, the pain magnified by a hundred times as she stirred slightly. She heard the whispering above her increased and it suddenly occurred to her that she didn't know where she was.

She forced her eyes to open slowly and saw nothing but white. _Wow, maybe I really am dead_. She thought as she narrowed her eyes to slits as the light seeped into them and her vision adjusted to what was around her. That was when she realised that there was not just white, but patches of black too. There were also lots of people and beds around her. She heard her name called and then searing pain as she was engulfed in something blue and white. She shut her eyes again immediately.

"Don't smother her!" she heard a voice say and the weight that was surely about to crush her disappeared with a quick apology. Maybe she wasn't in heaven, maybe she was in some kind of waiting room.

"Parvati," she heard someone say and then felt pressure on her hand as someone took it gently, "If you can hear me, squeeze my hand."

But Parvati didn't want to move, she didn't want to squeeze the owner of the voice's hand, even though there was something familiar about it.

"Please Parvati," the voice said again, "Please squeeze my hand."

Parvati felt something wet splash onto her hand and knew that the owner of the voice was crying.

"Parvati it's me, Padma."

An explosion of emotions erupted in Parvati's brain; Padma, her twin sister who she hadn't seen in eight months, Padma who she had thought about every day, Padma who she had missed more than her own freedom. Her eyes flew open again, the light blinding her again but this time she saw Padma sitting beside her with Terry and Isaac as well. Tears sprung to her eyes as she saw them sitting around her looking relieved.

"Parvati," Padma said, smiling through tears at her twin sister, "Oh god, I was so scared."

Parvati smiled slightly, trying to ignore the pain in her face as she did so. She was not dead, she knew that for a fact because Parvati wasn't dumb, nor was she stupid and she knew that there were no hospitals in heaven because nobody was hurt.

Parvati didn't have to ask what happened, because she remembered it all. Every single tiny detail, she only hoped that she wouldn't have to tell Padma.

She saw Terry stand up and place Isaac down on the bed beside her. The one year old grinned a toothy smile at her as she looked down at him, "Hello Isaac," she said, her voice croaky and her throat on fire. He grinned and clapped his hands happily. She wished that she could go back to being that innocent.

"Parvati, what happened?" Padma asked, Dean didn't tell us and the Healers wouldn't either."

Terry hit Padma softly on the arm, "Don't pepper her with questions." He said.

Just the small hit rang alarm bells in Parvati's head. She kept seeing the back of Terry's hand hitting her sister's arm replayed time and time again in slow motion. She suddenly felt vulnerable and scared, despite the fact that there were nearly twenty other people in the room. She didn't care how many people were there, she had to get out. She sat up, ignoring the pain that it caused and started pulling out the tubes that attached her to the machines. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and attempted to stand but was met by a sudden onset of dizziness, combined with the pain that made her fall to the ground. She couldn't breathe, every atom of her existence felt like it was about to explode and all she could hear was yelling and a long, continuous beep.

She felt strong arms clasp themselves around her and lift her up, placing her back onto the bed. She heard spells being muttered and felt the tubes being inserted back into her body. She tried to struggle but knew it was useless, she would never get far.

She saw a Healer conversing with Terry and Padma to her left.

"-What happened to make her do that?" the healer was asking.

"I don't know," Padma said tearfully, "I asked her what had happened and then Terry told me not to pepper her with questions."

The healer turned to Terry, "How did you say that to her," she asked sharply.

"I just hit her on the arm and told her not to," he shrugged.

"That's why," the healer said, "It's a trigger, if she sees anything like that she'll go nuts."

"Why?" Padma asked.

"Come with me," the healer said, walking off and leaving Parvati alone, in a crowded room.

* * *

By the time that Dean finally got into ICU to see Parvati, she was sleeping. He had been told by Terry and Padma that she had woken up at about three in the morning only to be spooked by him nudging her and try to run off. It was then that he had been called to watch her memories, as he was the one with the most authority to get Theodore prosecuted in the building.

Even though he thought it sick and an Invasion of privacy to watch those memories without Parvati's permission, he had. And what he had seen made him want to throw up. The way that he had treated her, the pain that he had caused her and the language that he had used while talking to her was enough to make him wish that Theodore was standing in front him with his hands tied, helpless, while Dean performed the killing curse.

It was then that Terry understood that the small hit that he had given Padma, while not meant to inflict harm on her; it was enough to trigger fear in Parvati.

As he looked down at her seemingly lifeless body, all battered and bruised, he couldn't help feeling like the inner pain that she was experiencing was so much worse and he couldn't help but think that if everyone cared, they wouldn't be in this mess at all.


	8. Fix You

Chapter 8

Fix You

It took weeks for Parvati to finally be moved out of Intensive Care. The injuries that she had suffered had been extensive and needed more time than was necessary to heal than most magical injuries.

Dean had had to fight to keep his face void of disgust when the healers told him, Terry and Padma what exactly had happened. She had six broken ribs that had punctured her lung in multiple spots, a fractured arm and broken leg and cuts all over her body from where he had hit her both with his fists and with all manner of nasty spells that Dean didn't even want to fathom. The healers told him that it was a miracle that she was still alive. They had told him that one more day and she would've been dead.

Dean had only left Parvati's bedside when visiting hours were over and he was booted out by unwilling healers. He knew that they could see that he cared more about her than he did about his sleep or even their bloody rules. He always put up a fight when they asked him to leave, but eventually after much begging, yelling and pleading he apparated back to his flat for a restless nights' sleep and was back at the door to Parvati's ward by eight o'clock the next morning, waiting for visiting hours to start again.

"I've never seen anyone so dedicated to a person," Padma said softly as she and Dean sat around Parvati's bed, watching her sleep.

Dean shrugged, "I just want to see her get better."

Padma smiled at him, "Me too," she said, taking his hand. Dean could only smile back at her. He admired her dedication as well. She and Terry lived in Bristol and had come all the way down to London and had remained there. Padma had stated her firm intent over and over to stay there until Parvati was well enough to leave the hospital. Dean had opened up his home to them so that they could have somewhere to stay, but Padma didn't want to leave Parvati alone in the hospital at night, so Terry, Padma and Isaac remained permanently at St Mungos.

Parvati was rarely awake and when she was she was so loaded up on painkillers and anti-depressants that she was very hard to talk to most of the time. Dean didn't mind though, her being awake and trying to communicate was fine with him. It showed him that she was recovering.

Mostly, he and Padma sat there in silence while Terry taught Isaac to walk and talk on the floor beside them, but today seemed like an exception as Padma seemed especially chatty.

"Do you like being an auror?" she asked him completely out of the blue. Dean looked up, pleasantly surprised that she was talking to him for once.

"Sometimes," Dean shrugged. Padma looked at him inquisitively, as though she was silently willing him to go on. Dean relented with a sigh. "I like it when nothing serious happens, when it's just creating a cover story for something that some wizard has done which threatens to expose us, but I hate it when things like this happen." He gestured to Parvati who had fallen asleep about half an hour ago. Padma nodded sadly.

"It can't be easy."

Dean shook his head, his eyes still glued to Parvati, "It's not."

He glanced at Padma to see tears forming in her chocolate brown eyes and couldn't help but feel sorry for her. After all, it was her twin sister that this had happened to, not his. It was then that he realised that even though he loved his three sisters with all his heart, he had never gone to any kind of lengths to be with them when they were in danger, he just assumed that they could take care of it themselves and it was only now that he saw what proper sibling love was, being there even if nobody else is and Dean saw that in Padma. Parvati was extremely lucky to have her.

"Mr. Thomas?" A voice jerked Dean out of his thoughts.

Dean turned to face the speaker, "That's me," he said.

"We have reason to believe that you may have information about the rescue of Parvati Sukhvinder Patil?" The speaker, who had turned out to be an old man with wispy white hair said.

"You assume correctly," Dean said coolly.

"Then you won't mind if we borrow you for a few minutes, just to get some details. Is that okay with you?"

Dean glanced at Padma and Parvati and gave a small sigh, "Yeah, that's fine." Dean said, getting to his feet slowly. The man with the white hair looked considerably shocked that Dean had agreed to talking to them so easily.

Dean followed the white haired man out of the room and into the corridor where there were three healers standing with notepads, "What do you need to know?" he asked. The white haired man gestured to a young, blonde healer to ask him the first question.

"Firstly, we're doing research on how Parvati Patil managed to survive for three days with no food, no water and several broken bones without getting a muggle disease known as gangrene," she said. Dean nodded slightly, too tired to care what they were asking him. The second healer, a brunette in about her mid-forties, stepped forward and said.

"What position was Miss Patil in when you discovered her?" she asked.

Dean fought to keep the tiredness from clouding his brain as he tried to form a coherent answer, "I don't know…" he said uncertainly, "she was sort of tied up by her wrists and slumped against the wall." He attempted to demonstrate how Parvati had been seated when they had found her.

"Well," said the blonde healer, "That solves the punctured lung problem. Her seating position and the fact that she was hunched over compressed the hole in the lung, which is great because if that hadn't been the case she would be in a lot more pain right now, or possibly even dead." The other healers nodded in agreement and everyone started scribbling down notes on their notepads.

Dean, who normally would've pressed the matter, couldn't have cared less what they were going to ask him next or what they were writing down on their notepads.

"Is that it?" he asked.

"No," the grey haired man said, stopping Dean in his tracks as he turned to go back into the ward, "We would also like to know when it is possible to go ahead with the case of prosecuting Theodore Nott?"

Dean shrugged again, "That's not my decision, I'm just a friend. You'll have to talk to Padma and Terry concerning that kind of stuff."

The grey haired man nodded in understanding, "Stay here," he told Dean, "There's still some more questions we need to ask you."

Dean watched him go back into Parvati's ward, presumably to get Padma. He wished that he could be the one to tell them to go and chuck the bastard in jail straight away, but unfortunately everyone got equal treatment under the law and everyone got a fair trial before being thrown to the dementors. Dean didn't like that idea too much right now. He had seen the significance of it before, but when something like this was involved he wished that it was revoked. Some people didn't deserve equal treatment under the law.

The grey haired man returned seconds later with Padma at his side. She didn't look happy at all.

"Mrs Boot," the grey haired man said, "We have compiled enough evidence against Theodore Nott to be able to convict him in a fair trial in front of the Wizenagamot, we would also like to use Parvati's memories, is that okay with you?"

Padma hesitated and Dean could see that she was completely split. She didn't want to say yes because that would be invading her sister's privacy and she didn't want to say no because that would give Theodore a greater chance of getting off.

"Yes, that sounds perfectly reasonable," Padma said hesitantly, "but on one condition." The grey haired man nodded, telling her to go on, "That as soon as this court case is over, you destroy them. Parvati should never find out."

"That sounds reasonable too," said the grey haired man, "We will inform you when we have a set date for the case. You both may be required to attend."

"Alright," Dean said, having had enough of talking about court cases and prosecutions.

The healers thanked them both and walked away. The grey haired man lingered for a second longer but with a wave and a wink he turned and walked away too.

Padma and Dean glanced at each other. This was not going to be easy.

* * *

Parvati found it increasingly hard to stay awake for long periods of time.

She knew that Padma and/or Terry was always there beside her, but sometimes when she had opened her eyes, Dean was there and sometimes he wasn't. She sometimes thought that it was her mind playing tricks on her.

Parvati's eyes flickered open, her eyelids heavy from exhaustion and looked up at Dean and Padma who were sitting at the end of the bed. She could just make out their conversation.

"Dean , I really can't wait any longer, Terry's really upset and we know that Parvati will pull through, I need to go and be with him."

"But then she'll be alone at night," Dean protested, "Part of the reason that I actually go home is that I know that you're here with her."

"She'll be fine Dean, she sleeps most of the time anyway." Padma said and Dean fell silent. She saw him bite his lips slightly and relent.

"You're probably right," he said with a shake of his head, "I'll just hide under the bed or something when visiting hours are up."

Padma laughed, "That's the spirit."

And with that, Parvati watched her sister disapparate from their midst. She was shocked and confused; Padma had told her that she would never leave no matter what. She saw Dean's eyes flicker back down to her and see that she was awake. She saw his stony expression break and be replaced by a smile filled with warmth.

He got up and moved to the chair beside her bed, taking her hand in his.

"Hey," he said softly, his face filled with happiness, "How are you feeling?"

"Sore," Parvati managed to reply and saw a hint of grimness behind the smile, "and tired."

"That will go away eventually," Dean reassured her, and then seeing her attention flick back to the spot where Padma had just disapparated, he said, "Terry's mother has just died, they've gone over to Wales to be with the family, they'll be back as soon as they can. They promised me."

A ghost of a smile appeared on Parvati's face, "You and your promises."

Dean laughed, "Me and my promises." He agreed.

"Dean," Parvati mumbled as she started to get drowsy again.

"Yeah," Dean said.

"Do you think you could get them to take me off the sleeping medication?" she mumbled as she slipped back into unconsciousness, "All it does is make it an effort for me to open my eyes."

"Sure," Dean said with a smile as her eyes fluttered shut and her breathing became steady. As he watched her lying there, a malnourished, beaten version of her former self he felt so many different emotions: Hate, anger, sadness, despair but most of all love. He had never loved her more than he did now. It was only when he had come so close to losing her had he finally realised that he was still harbouring feelings for her.

He released her hand, and called for a healer, requesting that she be taken off sleeping medication.

* * *

After much yelling, pleasing and demanding, Dean finally got what he wanted, to stay overnight in the hospital with her.

He had played the 'she shouldn't be alone' card and the healers hadn't been able to put up a good fight to refuse him since then.

He didn't know how Terry and Padma did this time after time, sleeping on little camp beds alongside Parvati's. Dean was tired, but he couldn't sleep. What if something happened to Parvati and he wasn't there to help her or call a healer? What if, despite all odds, Theodore managed to escape and take her away again? Dean shook his head, he was just being stupid and scaring himself silly with these thoughts, but still he found it impossible to sleep.

He found himself sitting in the chair beside the bed, watching Parvati sleep. She flinched every now and again but otherwise nothing happened until one in the morning. Dean had just been dropping off, his head lolling onto his chest when he heard her whimper.

His eyes flew open and encased her hand in his own again as she began to write, whimpering louder and louder until they weren't whimpers at all, they were full on yells and screams of pain and terror.

He grabbed her shoulders and shook them, hoping to wake her up, but all that did was make her yell and scream more.

Frantically, he leant over and pressed the button which summoned the Healers and went back to trying to subdue her. He tried pinning her down so that she wouldn't rip any of her tubes out but she just shrieked and he tried yelling her name but she didn't wake. She seemed to be stuck in her sleep.

Dean was confused as to why this was happening, Padma had never mentioned anything about this at all.

The lights clicked on and the healers burst in looking concerned, "What's happened?"

"She's having a nightmare?" Dean said, gesturing to Parvati, "I'm sure of it."

The healers sprang directly into action, checking her tubes and bags of liquid and located the source of the problem pretty much straight away.

"She's been taken off the sleeping potion," one of the healers said, "It has the ability to eradicate nightmares as well, that's why this has never happened before. We'll just put her back on it and she'll be fine."

Dean nodded frantically, wondering if she hadn't asked him to do that, they wouldn't be in this situation now.

The healers fixed Parvati and left. Dean sat down by her bed again, taking her hand and made a vow, a promise, an unbreakable commitment to Parvati.

"I promise that someday, somehow, I will fix you."


	9. Safe and Sound

Chapter 9

Safe and Sound

It seemed like years before Parvati had finally shown enough signs of recovering to be discharged from the hospital entirely.

Months of psychiatric treatment and physiotherapy for her to be mostly back to normal. She still wasn't quite right though. Dean was the only one that could see it. She lacked the spark that she had had before this whole ordeal had occurred. Dean could hardly blame her after all she had been through, who wouldn't be slightly off? But he couldn't help but miss that old Parvati.

"Are you sure she's alright to go?" Dean asked one of the healers who was checking over Parvati's paperwork at the front desk.

"Positive," the healer nodded, "The psychiatrist has given her the all clear to leave the hospital and she's demonstrated perfectly that she has recovered from all physical injuries."

Dean nodded, still feeling slightly unsure about what would happen when they left the hospital. What would he do if her nightmares came back and he wasn't able to wake her? What would he do if something went wrong with one of her healed injuries and Dean accidentally landed her back in the hospital? He wasn't even sure that he was allowed to take her home with him, despite the fact that both Padma and Parvati's parents had given their express permission for that to happen.

The healer seemed to see some of his reservations and smiled at him reassuringly.

"You know, she won't be the same for a while now," the healer remarked, "We can't keep her here until she's fully better so we send everyone home around half way to recover. Nothing will go wrong if you stick to this," she handed him a piece of paper with different types of potions on it and what they did, "You'll be fine Mr. Thomas, she's lucky to have you."

Dean accepted the list and signed the paper on the desk to say that she had officially signed out but despite the healer's reassurance that nothing would go wrong and it was natural for her to be slightly different after all that she had suffered, Dean couldn't help thinking as they walked out of St. Mungo's onto the busy street outside that there was something wrong.

He dismissed it quickly as paranoia and, keeping a tight hold of Parvati's hand, turned on the spot and disapparated, focussing on the apparition site in the alleyway of his street. He knew that Parvati wouldn't like the alleyway, not after what he had seen of her memories at Theodore's trial, but there was no other way to get home other than that. The Knight bus didn't operate on Sundays.

The squeezing sensation of apparition stopped abruptly and Dean opened his eyes. He looked sideways at Parvati who still had her eyes squeezed shut.

"Parvati," Dean said slowly.

"Yeah," she whispered, her eyes still shut.

"Keep your eyes shut for me," Dean said, "You can open them in about thirty seconds, don't worry. I'll guide you."

He was both surprised and relieved when he saw her nod her head slowly and clung to his hand a little more tightly. Despite what she'd been through she was glad that she still could trust him although he felt like she shouldn't. He knew that once people had gone through a traumatic experience that learning to trust again would be hard, but Parvati seemed to trust him with her life.

"Alright," he said as they reached the end of the alley, "you can open your eyes now."

He looked at her as she slowly opened her eyes and blinked at the bright light of the morning.

"It's really bright out here," Parvati said. Dean laughed, of everything she could've said she remarked on how bright it was.

"Come on," Dean said with a smile, "Let's go home."

"Home?" Parvati questioned.

"Oh, you don't have to call it home if you don't want to, but you're staying with me until Padma and Terry get back from Wales, then you'll go and live with them for a while, if you want to that is?"

Parvati shrugged, "I don't know what I want."

"That's fine too," Dean said, taking her hand in his and leading her towards his house

"It's not going to be the most comfortable few weeks of your life," Dean said as they reached the top of the staircase, "I don't actually own beds as you may remember."

Parvati nodded with a slight smile as Dean flicked his wand at the door and it swung open, "After you good lady," Dean said in mock poshness and bowed her through the door.

The flat smelled musty after weeks of no use and he remembered from seeing Parvati's memories at the trial, that musty smells could trigger her. Dean quickly waved his wands at the curtains and windows which flew apart and opened politely, letting the fresh smells of outside waft in. The bed on the couch was still made up from the last time that Parvati had been here, although Dean had changed the sheets, the first ones had a little blood on them.

"How are you feeling?" he asked as she sat down on her 'bed' if you could call it that.

"Tired," she muttered,

"Do you want to go to sleep?" Dean asked and Parvati nodded, her eyelids drooping considerably.

"I'll get you the sleeping potion," Dean said, walking over to his kitchen and starting to look for the sleeping potions that he had there.

"It's okay," Parvati mumbled, "I can fall asleep by myself now Dean."

Dean chuckled, "it's not just to make you fall asleep, it's to stop you from having bad dreams as well."

"I'm not three," Parvati said, putting her head to the pillow, "I can deal with nightmares."

And with that she slipped off to sleep. Dean immediately started to panic, what if she had a nightmare and he couldn't wake her up again? He had only experienced that twice and it had been terrifying both times. He sat down on the couch opposite her because the only thing to do now was to wait for her either to have nightmares or to wake up again.

Dean found himself drifting back to the trial. The atmosphere had been so tense that you could've sliced it with a knife. Dean had been able to see Theodore for the whole duration and with every second that passed he just wanted to kill him more and more, it was only the fact that Padma had her hand firmly on his leg that he didn't jump up and try to curse the piece of shit right then and there.

He remembered them projecting Parvati's memories onto the stone wall behind Theodore's seat and feeling ill when he saw how Theodore had treated her even before he was aware of the abuse that was going on and by the time they had reached the part just after Parvati had been taken back from Dean and into the cellar by Theodore, he almost threw up. Most members of the Wizenagamot were averting their eyes when it had got to that point, all scribbling "guilty" on their notepads. It was at this point that Dean realised why Parvati had such violent nightmares.

Meanwhile, Theodore had just sat there and smiled his evil predator smile, making Dean want to poke his wand into his eye and jiggle it around in there for a while before performing the killing curse for he was sure that nothing would give him a greater satisfaction. However, he supposed that twenty-five years to life in Azkaban was enough for him, at least the bastard would be rotting for twenty-five years. Dean hoped that the Dementors would go crazy and suck out his soul.

Both Dean and Padma had left the trial room completely traumatised from what they had seen and Padma had immediately gone to oversee the destruction of the memories, neither of them wanted Parvati to ever find out what they had had to do in order to get Theodore prosecuted.

The one thing that kept haunting Dean's dreams, however, was not the viewing of Parvati's memories, not the smile that Theodore had had on his face for the entire time, but what Theodore had said at the end of the trial when he was asked why he had done what he did instead of abiding by the laws of marriage and loving her like he said he would when they had taken their vows. He had just looked up at the Jury and said one simple phrase that had struck Dean dumb, "Because it made me happy."

Dean hadn't forgotten his face, his manic smile and his wide eyes when he had said that. Every time Dean closed his eyes he could see it behind his eyelids and that was the only part that genuinely scared him. If hurting others made him happy, how many others were there out there with husbands or wives that hurt them to make them happy? It was then, in his small flat in the middle of London that Dean decided that he wasn't going to rest until he found out all the cases of domestic abuse in the country and fixed it, because nobody deserved to be treated that way.

* * *

Parvati regretted falling asleep every time that she did. She regretted shutting her eyes and letting her mind drift off into her subconscious because all it was met with was Theodore's looming face and manic, crazy eyes. He would always do unspeakable things to her in the dream and she would always either wake up with Dean shaking her shoulders or covered in sweat while Dean yelled at her. She had learned to control how she reacted to the dreams over time until she was able to wake up by herself and not be forced to do so. But that had been on the sleeping potion which dulled her senses and was supposed to give her dreamless sleep, but she supposed that the memories were too strong to be siphoned away when she shut her eyes by a simple potion. What she had learned to control herself over was nothing compared to what she had to control herself over now.

_The dream was in full colour, the edges around everything was sharp rather than blurry and she could see Theodore advancing towards her a whip coming out of the end of his wand and threatening her with it. She felt herself press into something hard at the back of her and assumed that it was a wall._

" _Please, don't hurt me," she heard herself whimper and Theodore's grin only grew wider as he brought the whip down, slashing it across her face. Parvati cried out in pain as she felt blood start to flow from where it had struck her. He brought it down again, this time over her bare chest and she screamed as the white hot pain coursed through her. He brought the whip down on her again and again until she was flailing uncontrollably with pain. She could hear someone calling her name from the upper floor of the cellar and tried to call back but she couldn't talk. Fortunately, the voice was getting closer but Theodore had started to shake her shoulders violently and Parvati screamed a final scream…._

"Parvati!"

Parvati's eyes flew open to see Dean's face staring concernedly down at her, "Are you okay?" he asked. Parvati sat up abruptly, taking in where she was as if she had forgotten. She had been wrong to think that she could take a dream on without the help of the sleeping potion, she doubted that she ever would.

"Parvati," Dean said slowly, "Are you alright?"

Parvati had tried to stay strong, she really had but she couldn't for much longer, everything bubbled over and she began to cry.

"Hey," Dean said, sitting beside her on the sofa and gathering her in his arms, "It's alright, he's not here. He's in Azkaban."

"It doesn't st-stop him fr-fom inhabiting e-every dr-dream that I have though," Parvati sobbed, "I c-can't escape him Dean!"

"He's not real," Dean said firmly, "Just tell yourself that the real Theodore is in Azkaban and he can't hurt you. I promise it will get better."

"I'm just so tired, Dean," Parvati sobbed, "I'm so tired but I can't sleep at all because every time I do he comes back and hurts me!"

Dean got up, strode over to the medicine cabinet and poured a cup of sleeping potion, "Here," he said, handing it to Parvati, "Seamus used to have pretty bad sleeping troubles too, this stuff basically knocks you out for about fifteen hours."

Parvati didn't protest, she accepted the glass and downed it in one. Dean hadn't been lying when he said that it knocks you out as she immediately began feeling drowsy.

She found Dean's arms around her once again, murmuring something into her ear, "just close your eyes, the sun is going down. You'll be alright, nobody can hurt you now. Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound."

"Where did you get that from?" Parvati mumbled into his chest.

"It's an old muggle poem, my mum used to sing it to me and my sisters when we had nightmares," Dean said.

"That's nice," Parvati muttered before everything around her went blurry and she slipped into a smooth, dreamless sleep.


	10. Stand

Chapter 10

Stand

Every second Dean was battling with his feelings.

He knew that he shouldn't do this, Parvati was still just recovering from her traumatic last marriage to Theodore and he knew that even if he told her about the feelings that he was still harbouring for her from when they had dated, she would never be able to return them. Not after what she'd been through. So Dean kept his feelings close to his chest and tried not to let any of them show as more than close friendship when Parvati was awake.

She seemed to sleep increasingly often and was unable to stay awake for extended periods of time. Really the only times that she woke up were to go to the toilet and eat. Dean saw the fact that she was eating as a good sign, he had read about too many people that didn't eat after they had gotten home from the hospital and made themselves very ill by doing so. Dean was also glad to see that she was putting on some of the weight that she had lost during the three days that she was trapped in the cellar with no food or water.

"Dean," Parvati mumbled in her half sleepy state. Dean shot up from the couch and was over to her side in a heartbeat.

"Yeah," he said, taking her hand with a smile.

"I just want to say thank you," she mumbled, "Thank you for doing all of this for me. You're a great friend."

Dean smiled, "What brought this on?"

"I would still be with _him_ if it wasn't for you. Thank you for giving me the courage to get out."

"That's okay," Dean said, more than slightly confused, "Are you alright Parvati?"

"Yeah," Parvati said, "Just a little hungry though."

"Same," Dean said, suddenly realising that his stomach was grumbling and he remembered that his last meal had been nearly eight hours ago, "I'll get something to eat. Do you want anything in particular?"

Parvati shook her head, "Just food."

Dean nodded and walked into the kitchen. Picking up the list of things that Parvati wasn't allowed to have because they would either trigger her or they would give her some reaction because of the medication that she was on.

Secretly, he was torn between not wanting Terry and Padma to ever come back from Wales so that she could stay with him for longer and wanting them to come back so that they could help him destroy his feelings for her because he knew that she could never return them.

He quickly threw some cheese on toast under the grill and flicked his wand at it, setting the machine to cook it faster and just the way that he liked it. He glanced back over at Parvati who still looked beautiful, even with the healed scars that decorated her face. He didn't know how anyone could stand to hurt such a beautiful face.

The grill dinged and Dean levitated the toast out of it and onto two plates before levitating the plates over to the coffee table.

"Here you go," Dean said as he sat down on his couch. Parvati looked at the toast and laughed. Dean was completely taken aback, this was the first time that she had laughed in ages. He literally couldn't remember the last time that she had laughed.

"Do you live off cheese on toast, Dean?" she asked with a smile and Dean realised that all he had eaten in the three days that she had been home with him was cheese on toast. He hadn't exactly had time for anything else.

"Sorry," He mumbled, "Do you want something else?"

"No," Parvati said, "It's fine, I like it."

"Are you sure, because I can-"

"Dean, I said it's fine," she said and he realised how much more beautiful she was when her angelic smile crossed her face. Dean grinned back at her.

"When do you think Padma will be back?" Parvati asked, swallowing her first bite of toast.

"Oh yeah," Dean said, remembering what he had meant to tell her when she woke up, "She flooed a few hours ago, she and Terry will be back on Wednesday and they said that they'll come and stay here if you want to stay here."

Parvati looked at her lap and whispered, "I want to stay here."

"Are you sure?" Dean said and Parvati nodded without hesitation.

"Is that okay with you?" Parvati asked.

"It's always okay with me," Dean said, "If you ever want to talk to or be with someone, you can count on me Parvati, because I'll be there."

Parvati smiled again making Dean's heart flutter, "Thank you Dean, you've been way to kind to me. I don't deserve it."

"What?" Dean said, completely taken aback as to why she would say this, "Of course you do."

"No, I don't," Parvati said, "Especially after what did to you."

"Of course you don- wait what?" Dean asked, still incredibly confused, "What did you do to me."

"I broke up with you," Parvati said, "I broke up with you for no other reason but the fact that you weren't interesting enough for me."

Dean knew all of this, but it didn't stop him from loving her in the slightest, it just made him sad.

"So?" He said, "that's all in the past now."'

"But I still did it, you have no motive to be nice to me but you still are," she said.

Dean set down his plate and got up from the couch, moving over to take Parvati's hand in his.

"It doesn't matter that you still did it, Parvati. Even if you weren't forced to marry _him_ and you were looking for a place to stay I would've let you in because that's what friends do," Dean said, "I've forgiven you for that and right now I just want to see you well and safe."

"I don't know if I can forgive myself," Parvati sniffed.

"Please," Dean said, "Forgive yourself for me?"

Parvati looked up, tears in her eyes and nodded, "Only for you though,"

"Thank you," Dean said, and before he could stop himself he had lowered his head and kissed her hand. Parvati withdrew it as if she had been burned, looking petrified. Dean immediately realised his mistake.

"Oh god, Parvati, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that, that was so out of line. Oh god I don't even know what came over me."

Parvati was still looking at him with an expression of utmost horror on her face.

"Please Parvati, I'm so sorry."

Parvati seemed to pull herself together slightly, "Th-that's okay," she said, her voice shaking, "Just don't do it again."

Dean nodded fervently, mentally kicking himself for letting himself get so careless. He had promised himself that he wouldn't show any romantic feelings towards Parvati, and he had failed. He didn't know what had happened or what had compelled him to kiss her hand. Maybe it was just the heat of the moment that he had done it in. Maybe it was because of the fact that she was apologising for falling out of love with him and all that did was just make him fall even harder. Love was like fire, you get too close and someone always gets burnt. Dean had just experienced yet another burn.

* * *

"Are you sure that you're going to be alright here by yourself?" Dean asked as he pulled his coat on and started rushing around, trying to find all of the things that were necessary for work.

"Yeah," Parvati said, "I'll be alright. You said that Padma was coming around sometime today didn't you?"

"She should be here now," Dean said grimly, looking at his watch. As soon as he said that there was a tap on the door. "Speak of the devil," Dean muttered , opening the door to reveal Padma standing there with Isaac.

"You took your time," Dean said.

"I had to catch the knight bus!" Padma said irritably, "I can't apparate or floo with Isaac."

"Yeah whatever," Dean said, "I've got to go or I'll be late."

"Alright," Padma said as Dean pushed past her into the hallway, "I'll see you when you get back then?"

"Yeah," Dean said, "bye!"

And like that he had disappeared down the staircase.

Padma shut the door behind her and turned to face Parvati, a smile spreading across her face as she did so.

"Hey," she said happily, moving across the room to hug her sister, "How are you?"

"Recovering," Parvati said with a slight smile.

"That's great," Padma said, sitting down next to Parvati on the couch, "Recovery is good."

"Yeah," Parvati said, "I still can't sleep without the sleeping potion though."

"I don't blame you," Padma said, passing Isaac over to Parvati as she held her arms open for him.

"I just see him everywhere Pad," Parvati said, "In every shadow, in every nightmare, in the corner of my eye."

"Have you talked to Dean about this?" Padma asked as Parvati cradled Isaac in her arms.

"No," Parvati said truthfully, "I don't want him to think I'm weak."

Padma sighed in frustration, "Parvati, the only way you're going to face your demons is if you talk about it to someone."

"I don't want to," Parvati said, "I don't feel comfortable talking about it with him."

"Why not? He's one of your best friends," Padma said, cocking her head to the side.

Despite the fact that Parvati knew that there was nobody in the flat apart from her, Padma and Isaac, she still glanced around furtively before leaning in and whispering in a low voice to Padma, "He still loves me."

Padma's mouth dropped open, "No way," she said in surprise, "Really? After all this time? Now _that_ is what I call dedication."

"This isn't funny Pad," Parvati said, "I don't love him as anything more than a friend."

"Yeah, _now_ you don't love him as anything more than a friend but give it a few years and you'll be surrounded by children," Padma joked. Parvati's breath hitched in her throat as memories started to flood back. She didn't know how Padma mentioning having children related to this but she suddenly felt scared and insecure. The shadows started appearing in the corners of her eyes again and she started to twitch, becoming increasingly paranoid.

She saw Padma put a hand to her mouth, "God, Parvati, I'm so sorry, forget that I said it."

"No," Parvati said, "I don't know what's wrong with me, don't be sorry."

"There's nothing wrong with you," Padma said, putting a hand on her sister's arm, "I get that having children brings back bad memories for you."

"I don't understand," Parvati said, furrowing her brow.

Padma raised an eyebrow before shaking her head, "Anyway, have you made a decision?"

"About what?" Parvati asked, evidently confused.

Padma rolled her eyes, "About the baby, are you keeping it or getting an abortion."

"What baby?" Parvati asked, starting to become frustrated. Padma's eyes widened in realisation.

"Oh my god they didn't tell you," Padma said, her eyes becoming as wide as galleons.

"Tell me what?" Parvati said, her voice breaking in frustration.

"How could they have not told you? Honestly, I leave you in their care for the remainder of your stay in hospital and they don't even have the decency to tell you that you're pregnant," Padma spat angrily.

Parvati's jaw fell open in shock as her heart started to beat faster and faster, "I'm not pregnant," she said slowly, "Nu uh, no way."

Padma's brow creased with concern, "I'm really sorry to break it to you this way Parvati, but it's true."

"No it's not," Parvati said, standing up and storming over to the full length mirror, there was no noticeable bulge in her stomach, "I'm not pregnant Padma!"

Padma looked at her sympathetically, "Look, I'm sorry to say it like this but I've seen the memories. He raped you Parvati, without protection. What do you think is going to come out of that?"

"What?" Parvati said, tears welling in her eyes, "Did you just say you'd seen my memories?"

Padma seemed to regret her outburst immediately, "Yes," she muttered.

"How?" Parvati said incredulously, "How have you seen inside my head?"

"A pensive, projected onto a wall at the trial that convicted Theodore Nott. How do you think we got him convicted so easily?"

"You took my memories without my permission!" Parvati shrieked.

Padma cringed, "We had to Padma, nobody else knew what had happened to you apart from the arse and you. We couldn't get his version of events because he had messed with them."

"Why couldn't you just knock him out and extract them like you did to me?" Parvati yelled, tears starting to fall down her cheeks.

"That's exactly what they did," Padma said, "but he permanently did something to them in his head. They weren't the real version of events. Parvati he would still be loose if we hadn't used those memories."

"Did it ever occur to you that I might want some privacy?!" Parvati yelled through her tears, "The whole damn wizarding world knows about my life and now the whole of the Wizenagamot knows how it all happened."

"I'm sorry!" Padma said as Parvati collapsed onto Dean's couch, sobbing, "I'm so, so sorry but would you rather him be loose in the world or in Azkaban rotting with the dementors? You weren't there at the trial, Par, he was a freaking psycho maniac, trust me I was glad to see him dragged off by the dementors."

Parvati looked up at Padma with puffy eyes, "A-am I really pregnant, Padma?"

The look in Padma's eyes was identical to that of her sister's, "Yes," Padma said, "They told me after you'd been in the hospital for six weeks. They said you were about four weeks."

"But that would make me five months by now," Parvati said, "And I haven't gotten any bigger!"

"You have though," Padma said, "Sorry, not to be a bitch or anything but you have gained a lot of weight since I last saw you."

"The last time you saw me, I was lying in a hospital bed almost dead from dehydration and starvation. Of course I've put on weight since you last saw me!"

"Parvati, I know what I heard and the healers are experts. If you don't believe me we can go there now and get it confirmed. Would you like that?" Padma asked.

"Yes!" Parvati exploded, "I would like that very much so that if I am pregnant, I can get a bloody abortion!"

"Fine!" Padma said, "Grab your coat and we'll go."

And with that Isaac started to cry. Both Parvati and Padma's attention snapped back to him, having forgotten that he was there in the heat of the argument. Parvati remembered how she felt when Isaac was born. She hadn't loved anyone more in her life. He was the cutest thing that she had ever laid eyes upon and it had been then that she had decided that she had wanted children of her own. But this was different. She couldn't have Theodore's baby. Not now, not ever.


	11. Misery

Chapter 11

Misery

Parvati felt numb. She felt as if everything was moving in slow motion and she could hear her heart beating in her ears as she stared slightly slack jawed at the Healer who had just confirmed what Padma had been telling her all along.

"No," Parvati said, shaking her head dismissively, "You've made some kind of mistake, I'm not pregnant."

The healer gave her a sad smile and nodded, "I'm afraid you are, Mrs Nott."

"Don't call me that!" Parvati spat angrily, gripping the sides of the bed that she was lying on tightly as things that she did not want to see began to strain at the edges of her vision. Her breathing became faster as the dark shapes and memories began to seep into the corners of her mind again.

"Parvati," Padma said, pushing the Healer aside and grabbing Parvati's shoulders as she started to twitch slightly, trying to stop the memories from coming back altogether, "Parvati stay with me. Come on Par, you can fight it."

"What's wrong with her?" The healer asked cautiously.

"Like you don't know," Padma snapped, not taking her eyes off Parvati, who was starting to calm down a bit.

"No, I don't actually," the healer said coolly, obviously not impressed with Padma's tone, "Enlighten me."

Padma sighed and shook her head, "I can't, not with her in the room."

The healer suddenly seemed to understand and nodded curtly. Parvati shivered slightly as she saw the specks of black around the edges of her vision retreat. She hated that feeling of blackness and lost hope that came back to her immediately every time somebody mentioned something to do with her life with _him._

"Alright, Miss Patil?" she looked at Padma for confirmation on her surname. Padma nodded once and the Healer proceeded with her results, "There is no doubt about it, you are pregnant."

Parvati shook her head stubbornly, "I'm not," she said, "I'm not, I'm not, I'm not."

"Look," the Healer said, showing Parvati an ultrasound photograph, purposely covering the name at the top with her thumb, "this is your baby."

Parvati's eyes widened at the sight of the moving ultrasound and that was when it really hit home. She was actually pregnant. She was actually going to have _his_ baby.

"I want an abortion," she stammered. The healer looked at her in slight shock.

"I-I'm sorry?" she asked in confusion.

"I want an abortion," Parvati said, articulating every word with anger behind it.

"We can't do that," the healer said, still slightly taken aback by Parvati's abrupt request.

"Why not?" Parvati asked, looking from Padma to the healer.

"Because we can't perform an abortion when you're this far into your pregnancy, if you wanted an abortion you should've said so when you came in at eight weeks."

"I didn't come in at eight weeks!" Parvati shrieked, "You want to know why I didn't? Because I didn't even _know_ that I was pregnant until about half an hour ago!"

"How is that even possible?" The healer asked, still confused.

"I can't do this," Parvati said, jumping down from the bed and walking out without a backwards glance. The Healer, who had no idea what was going on in the slightest turned to Padma, the look on her face demanding answers.

"Do you know the meaning of this?" The healer asked irritably. Padma nodded slightly, adjusting Isaac in her arms.

"Would you care to explain?"

Padma sighed and sat down in the chair next to the bed that Parvati had been. sitting on moments before, "She hasn't had the best year." She said simply. The healer raised an eyebrow before giving Padma a look that told her to continue, "She was forced into marrying some twat because of the marriage law between purebloods and he wasn't the nicest of men," she said, pursing her lips together, "He did something to her that caused her to be hospitalised for six months and the Healer's told me that she was pregnant as soon as they knew, but then my husband's mother died and we had to leave her with a friend who didn't know either. I think they expected me to tell him to tell her, but that didn't happen. She's had no idea until now."

"That's horrible," The healer said, "Imagine that bombshell being dropped on you after six months in hospital."

"I know," Padma said, "The only reason that I brought it up was because I thought that she knew."

"You would've had to have told her eventually," the Healer said. There was a small pause before the Healer addressed the elephant in the room, "So I'm guessing the reason that she wants this abortion so badly is because he raped her?"

Padma nodded solemnly, "Yeah."

"I wish I could give it to her," the healer said, "but we can't after she's moved into the second trimester."

Padma stood up, "I understand, I'll tell her that."

"Thank you," the Healer said, "And tell her that I'm sorry about what happened."

"I don't think it would be wise to bring that up," Padma said, "But I'll try to convey it as indirectly as possible."

The healer nodded, "Also, tell her that her options are either to keep the baby when it is born or to give it up for adoption."

Padma nodded curtly, "Okay, I'll tell her but I think I already know what she wants to do after its born."

Both Padma and the Healer exchanged a knowing look before'- Padma turned and followed her sister out into the Hallway.

* * *

When Dean arrived home to find the flat empty, his immediate thought was that Theodore had managed to escape Azkaban, had broken back into his flat and had taken Parvati, Padma and Isaac hostage in exchange for his freedom or something. But then Dean realised that he had been questioning Theodore in Azkaban only half an hour beforehand and that there was no way he could've gotten loose, swum across the ocean to the nearest land and gotten to Dean's flat in Half an hour without his wand.

"Hello?" he called, "Is anyone there?"

There was no answer. Dean's heart began to pound quickly in his chest, every horror movie that he had ever seen in his life coming back to haunt him, "Parvati, Padma? Are you here?"

There was still no answer. He reached sideways and flicked on the lights, almost blinding himself as his eyes adjusted to the sudden light that was slicing through the darkness. Squinting around the room, he saw nothing that ever suggested that Parvati and Padma were ever here. His heart threatened to beat out of his chest as he walked into the kitchen slowly, thinking that they could've been making dinner and had gone out to buy some more ingredients. Instead, he found a note.

So many different scenarios coursed through Dean's mind at the sight of the note. It could be a ransom note, or a note full of clues leading him to where Parvati and Padma were being held. He unfolded it with fumbling fingers and read it nervously.

_Dean,_

_We've gone to St Mungo's, don't know when we'll be back. Don't worry about us and don't cook dinner, we'll get takeaway._

_Padma_

The relief that coursed through his veins was indescribable. He didn't even know why he had thought of any of the other stuff. It seemed so irrational now that he thought about it. He guessed that he was just paranoid after what had happened to Parvati and how Theodore had managed to find them just after asking the conductor of the knight bus for directions.

He read the note over and laughed slightly at the bit that told him not to cook dinner. He guessed that it was a dig at how much he ate cheese on toast. Secretly, he was grateful that they were getting takeaway, he was getting sick of Cheese on toast for every meal and he was the one that decided what he ate.

Sitting down on the couch he pulled out his work and began to copy out the notes that he had written when he had interviewed Theodore in Azkaban. He hadn't wanted to do it, especially after what he did to Parvati but at the same time he was curious to know what Theodore's motive behind the abuse was because nobody was just an abusive git for no reason.

He began to rewrite the notes into a transcript in order. Theodore had seemed more loopy than the last time, but had had no control over what secrets came out of his mouth, revealing everything to Dean, who was yet to make sense of the garbled words that had come out of his mouth.

Carefully, he began to write on a fresh piece of paper all of the words that had been the most hard to translate, which were probably the best kept secrets. The questions that had the most mixed up words were the ones in which Dean had asked him why he had done what he did. There was one sentence that took Dean forty five minutes to make sense of and when he finally did, he dropped his quill in shock. The sentence, when said normally read.

_I saw my father do it to my mother, it's normal in a marriage isn't it?_


	12. Not Alone

Chapter 12

Not Alone

Dean sat there, his jaw clenched as he stared down at the statement. He didn't know why he was surprised. It did, after all explain why Theodore was such an unhappy person while they were at Hogwarts and it did wholly explain why he did what he did to Parvati. Dean sighed and sat back on the couch, looking up at the ceiling and thinking of all of the paperwork this was going to need if he was to report it, which he would have to eventually. Despite the fact that he had wanted the full story on why Theodore had done what he did so that they might have something interesting come out of the case other than the fact that Theodore was a monster, Dean found himself with a strong urge to pretend that he had never deciphered the sounds that Theodore had emitted and turn in a report saying that Theodore had gone insane. He knew that the only reason for this urge was because he was personally involved in the matter. He hated Theodore for what he had done to Parvati, for all of the pain that he had caused her, some of which would last forever in the form of memories but now that he had found this out about her he couldn't seem to hate the man with such a burning passion as he had beforehand, even though he knew that he should. He couldn't shake the feeling and the thought that it wasn't Theodore's fault. _But it was his fault!_ Dean thought, _he didn't have to beat and rape her._

 _Yes, but he doesn't know any different_! Another smaller voice in another part of his brain said.

Dean was completely torn between feeling sorry for him as he must've had such an awful childhood, and from hating his guts because he had done that to Parvati. He leaned forward, gripping his hair tightly as his feelings clashed together in a sea of confusion.

There was a knock on the door, making Dean jump almost a foot in the air. He quickly stuffed all of the paperwork inside his briefcase and stowed the briefcase underneath the couch as an extra precaution to make sure that Parvati never found out.

"It's open," he called.

He was barely halfway to the door when it clicked open to reveal Padma, Parvati and Isaac standing there with bags upon bags of groceries.

"Come on then," Padma said, "Help us bring it all in."

Dean stared at them, dumbfounded, "Uh," he said, still confused as to why they had not only bought dinner, but an amount of food that probably couldn't fit in his pantry.

"Dean do I look like I've got ten hands?" Padma said exasperatedly, adjusting Isaac on her hip.

"No," Dean said, shaking himself out of his daze and drawing his wand as he moved forward to relieve Parvati of the three bags that she was carrying with a small smile, "I got it," he said and she let them go almost in relief.

Dean levitated most of the bags inside with his wand and dumped them unceremoniously on the kitchen bench.

"So," he said, turning around, "Does anyone want to explain why I have this much food in my kitchen? It's only me in this flat."

Padma scoffed, "Dean, you live off tea and cheese on toast, it's time you started to shake up your diet a little."

"I'm not a family of ten!" Dean said in disbelief looking around at all of the food, "Padma this could cure world hunger!"

Padma laughed, "Well there may not be ten people living here at the moment, but there sure as hell is more than one, so as long as I'm here, we're not eating cheese on toast at all."

"You're staying?" Dean asked in confusion.

Padma gave him a blank look, "Of course I'm staying, you didn't think that I'd just dump Parvati on you and run off to Wales with Terry did you? No, Isaac and I are staying here until Terry and his family can sort the whole thing with his mother's will out, then we'll take Parvati back to Bristol with us."

"Uh, well there isn't a lot of room in this place," Dean said, "and I haven't got any mattresses so you may be sleeping on the floor."

"What do you think the blow up mattresses are for then?" Padma said, pointing to a bag. Dean rolled his eyes. This was definitely Padma, always prepared for any situation.

"Alright then," Dean said, giving in, "You two want to tell me why you went gallivanting off to St Mungos?" he looked from Padma to Parvati, searching for answers in their eyes. It was then that he noticed that Parvati's eyes were red rimmed and bloodshot. His gaze flicked back to Padma, questions written all over his face. Padma immediately mouthed, _I'll tell you later_ and Dean could only imagine that it wasn't good news.

"Right then," Padma said, "we didn't know what food you liked so we just got Chinese, hope that's okay?"

"Yeah, Chinese is fine," Dean said, as he watched Padma hand Isaac to Parvati, his thoughts on completely different things than what they were eating for dinner. He had noticed a change in Parvati's demeanour and the way that she moved, "Uh, Padma do you want to help me dish it out?" he asked, hoping to wriggle some answers out of her.

Padma nodded and moved over to Dean, taking the plastic containers out of the bag as Dean pulled out three plates and one bowl for Isaac.

"So," he said in hushed tones, "Why did you go to St Mungo's?"

Padma glanced anxiously behind her to see that Parvati was still playing with Isaac, "Dean I'm so sorry that I didn't tell you," she said urgently, "I honestly thought that the healers would but evidently they didn't."

"Tell me what?" Dean said, stopping what he was doing to listen to what Padma was saying.

Padma glanced around again before lowering her voice to such a whisper that Dean couldn't be sure that he heard her right.

"She's pregnant," Padma whispered.

"What?" Dean asked, using all of his self-restraint to not raise his voice, "are you serious?"

Padma nodded seriously, "Five months."

"What?" Dean hissed, "How could something that big slip your mind?"

Padma fired up, "My mother-in-law died!" Padma whispered, "is that not a big enough situation to drive it from my mind?"

Dean faltered, seeing where he had gone wrong there, "Well why didn't the healers tell me?"

"That's what I want to know," Padma said, "They obviously thought that either a) I would tell you or b) you weren't privy to the information."

"Well that's freaking brilliant," Dean said sarcastically, moving a dim sim onto his plate with such force that it bounced onto the countertop, "Just brilliant. She can't get an abortion this late into her pregnancy can she?"

Padma shook her head sadly, "It's too late, she either has to keep the baby or give it up for adoption once it's born."

"I'm going to bloody sue St. Mungo's!" Dean said, "If they'd told me when they told you then we would be in this mess. She's already been through enough; she doesn't need to go through this!" Dean said angrily, not knowing how he was keeping his voice to a whisper.

"You're talking to me like _I'm_ the bad guy in this Dean," Padma said, putting her hands on his shoulders as he seethed , "I'm on her side, we both are."

Dean let out a long sigh, "Sorry," he said, "It's been a long day."

"Yeah," Padma said, "For you and me."

* * *

Parvati could vaguely hear them whispering behind her as she cradled Isaac in her arms, staring at nothing. She knew that Padma was telling Dean about what had happened today but she was glad that she was whispering because she knew that if she could make out the words that her body would shut down and she had to stop that from happening. She had tried to be strong for so long, tried to act like nothing affected her, that she was completely bulletproof but after this, she found herself an emotional wreck, Padma's words from before drifted back to her.

" _You don't have to be strong twenty-four hours a day, Parvati."_

To which Parvati had responded, _"I have to try_."

And try she must. She wanted everything to go back to the way it was before she had been forced into marrying that bastard, before she was afraid to sleep without sleeping potion, before all of the scars started to litter her body and her mind. Parvati had been determined for this to happen when she had returned from the hospital but now that there was a living person growing inside her it was a lot harder to make an effort to return to normal.

How could she just go back to her normal way of living now that this had happened? How could she try to return to her normal mindset when she had a living, breathing reminder to show for what she'd been through, when every day she woke to find a child that might so much resemble Theodore that she would collapse every time she saw it.

Parvati felt something move deep inside her abdomen and she flinched slightly, rousing Isaac from his sleep. He opened his big brown eyes and looked up at her, startled.

"Sorry," Parvati whispered, readjusting her hold on him as he closed his eyes again.

She felt her heart hammering at a thousand miles an hour as her free hand flew to her abdomen, probing around gently. Was that movement the baby? Was it telling her that it was there, just reminding her of its existence, reminding her of how it came to be.

She looked down at Isaac's sleeping form and wondered if she would ever look at her child as Padma looked at Isaac. With so much love in her eyes that it looked like she might burst open with it. Would she ever have that pleasure? Or would she never be able to look upon it without remembering what happened to her.

She knew that something had to be done, but what? She could kill herself, that would work in getting rid of the baby but then what would all her fighting be for? If she killed herself now she would break Padma's heart, not to mention Dean's. She knew that she couldn't bring herself to do anything to harm herself in order to hurt the baby. She would have to deal with it in other ways. Other ways that hadn't been thought up yet.

"Dinner is served," Dean said in a mock French accent, placing a plate of rice, dim sim's and noodles in front of her.

"Thanks," she said with a smile as Padma offered to take Isaac to bed. Parvati picked up her plate and found that once she put the first spoonful of noodles in her mouth that she was very hungry. She hadn't eaten all day.

"Dean," she whispered as she tried to refrain herself from shovelling the whole plate into her mouth at once.

"Yeah?" Dean said, looking up and smiling at her.

Parvati drew a shaky breath and spoke the words that she had been thinking since she and Padma had left St. Mungo's.

"What am I going to do?" she whispered and she knew in a heartbeat that Dean knew what she was talking about. He had set his plate on the coffee table and was sitting next to her, taking her hand in his in less than three seconds.

"I don't know," Dean said truthfully, "But we're going to get through this, you, me and Padma. You're not alone Parvati, you never will be, not ever, do you know why?"

Parvati shook her head, "Because you're here, with me."


End file.
